Full text of "The fundamental principles of Old and New world civilizations: a comparative research based on a study of the ancient Mexican religious, sociological and calendrical systems"

See other formats

NRLF

525

LIBRARV

OF Tin;

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

GIKT OK

AMTHROFOLOGV UBRARY

ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL PAPERS

OF THE

PEABODY MUSEUM

— Harvard University —
VOL. II.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

OLD AND NEW WORLD CIVILIZATIONS

A COMPARATIVE RESEARCH BASED ON A STUDY OF THE

ANCIENT MEXICAN RELIGIOUS, SOCIOLOGICAL

AND CALENDRICAL SYSTEMS

ZELIA NUTTALL

Honorary Special Assistant of the Peabody Museum

SEVEN PLATES AND SEVENTY TIIKEE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
PEABODY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN
ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

1901

ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL PAPEKS

PEABODY MUSEUM

- Harvard University -
VOL. II.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
OLD AND NEW WORLD CIVILIZATIONS

A COMPARATIVE RESEARCH BASED ON A STUDY OF THE

ANCIENT MEXICAN RELIGIOUS, SOCIOLOGICAL

AND CALENDRICAL SYSTEMS.

/ELI A NUTTALL

Honorary Special Assistant of the Peabody Museum: Fellow of the American Association for the

Advancement of Science; Member of the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; Honorary Member

of the Archaeological Association, Univ. of Pennsylvania: Corresponding Member

of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Philadelphia; of the

Anthropological Society of Washington ; of the Soeieta Italinnn

d'Antropologia; of the Soeiete de Geographic de

Geneve; of the Sociedad Cientiflco ••Antonio

Alzntc," Mexico: and of the Soeiete

des AmericaMistes de Puri*.

CAMBRIDGE. MASS.
I'EABODY Mi:SKL'M OF AMKKKAN A H( IIAKOLUG V AND KTHSOLOGY.

AliKNTS KdR THE Ml-SK.r.M PrBUCATI- »NS :

Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly, London. Karl \V. Hiersemami, Koenix^trasse 3.

MARCH. 1901.

ANTHROPOLOGY LIBRARY

IVabody Mu.seinn of American Archaeology and Ethnology
Harvard Univei'sitv.

Salem Vrcss :

THE SALEM PRESS Co., SALEM, MASS.
1901.

EDITORIAL NOTE.

TUP: author of this volume explains in her preface how she came
to be led beyond her special field of research into a comparative
study of the early civilizations of the Old World ; and how she
traced the origin of the swastika, in Mexico, to an astronomical
source and, in all countries alike, found its use as a sacred symbol
accompanied by evidences of a certain phase of culture based on
pole-star worship, and the recognition of the fixed laws of nature,
which found expression in the ideal of celestial kingdoms or states
organized on a set numerical plan and regulated by the apparent
revolutions of circumpolar constellations.

The results of the author's researches seem to justify her sum
mary of conclusions ; but she distinctly states that she does not
wish to propound any theory. She invites further study and dis
cussion by Orientalists and Americanists before drawing final con
clusions from the facts she has gathered. The publication of this
paper will open anew the consideration of pre-Columbian visits to
the New World, shown, as many have believed, by identities
too many and too close to be considered as mere resemblances or
as the natural results of independent intellectual development.

The illustrations are nearly all from drawings by the author.
The analytical Index has been prepared by Miss Mead. It will be
seen, by the numbering at the bottom of each page, that it was at
first intended to include this paper in Volume I of the Archaeo
logical and Ethnological Papers of the Museum; but the addition
of the text relating to the Old World made too bulky a volume,
and it is therefore issued as Volume II of the series.

To Mrs. Nuttall for the gift of her work, the results of years of
research, and to the several generous friends who have provided
the means for publishing this volume, the editor expresses his
o-ratitude in behalf of the Museum.

7T>

F. W. PUTNAM,

Curator of tho Peabody Museum.
H a r v a rd U n i v e r s i t y ,

March 1, P.'Ol.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

IN February, 1898, while engaged upon the translation and com
mentary of the anonymous Hispano Mexican MS. of the Biblioteca
Nazionale Centrale Library, of Florence, my interest was suddenly
and unexpectedly diverted from my self-imposed task by the cir
cumstances described in the opening pages of the present publica
tion.

Laying my work aside, as I then supposed, for a few days only,
I seized the new thread of investigation with a keen and enthusias
tic interest, little knowing that it, in turn, was not only to hold me
fast for nearly three years, but was to lead me out of my original
field of research, into distant, and tome, hitherto untrodden realms,
in close pursuit of facts relating to the oldest forms of religion,
social organization, and symbolism.

The first portion of the present publication was planned as a
short monograph of forty-one pages, treating of the origin of the
native swastika or cross symbols, and was written in July, 1898,
its outcome being the unforeseen conclusion that the cosmical con
ceptions of the ancient Mexicans were identical with those of the
Zuffis. I next traced the same fundamental set of ideas in Yuca
tan, Central America and Peru and formed the wish to add this
investigation to the preceding. The result has been the portion of
the work extending from page 41, paragraph 2, to page "284, which
was printed in 1899.

Having once launched into a course of comparative research,
the deep interest I have always taken in the question of Asiatic
contact led me to carry my investigation of the same subject into
China. It then seemed impossible not to extend researches from
Eastern to Western Asia, and from Asia Minor to Egypt, Greece,
Rome and Western Europe. It is in this unpremeditated way that
the scope of the present investigation enlarged itself of its own
accord, for the simple reason that the most interesting and precious

AUTHOR S PREFACE. 5

facts fell into my way as I advanced and all I bud to do was to
pick them up and add them to my collection of evidence.

One serious disadvantage, arising from the circumstance that
the present investigation has been in press for nearly three years, is
my inability to make any alteration, amendment, or addition, in the
earlier portions, which stand as written at different times. It is a
matter of regret to me that I was not acquainted with O'Neil's
" Night of the Gods " and Hewitt's u Ruling Races of Prehistoric
Times," at an earlier stage of my investigation, as through them
my publication would have been enriched by many valuable addi
tions which I could have incorporated in the body of my work
without unduly sacrificing its unity of form.

In the line of Maya investigation notable advances have been
made since I wrote (on page 221), about the " septenary set of
signs " described by Mr. A. P. Maudslay in 1886, and about the
inscription on the tablet of the Temple of the Cross at Palenque
(pp. 237-39). Since that time an important publication on the
Tablet of the Cross, to which I should have liked to refer, has been
issued by the much esteemed Nestor of Maya investigations, Herr
Geheimrath Dr. Forstemann. My attention has also been drawn
by the best versed of American students of the Maya Codices, Mr.
Charles P. Bowditch, to the fact that Mr. Maudslay now recognizes
the general recurrence of an eighth sign in combination with the
septenary group, causing this to consist of an initial glyph, followed
by seven instead of six signs. Referring the reader to pp. 221
and 222, I point out that the employment of an initial glyph, rep
resenting the synopsis of a whole, followed by seven signs, appears-
even more strongly to corroborate my view that the inhabitants of
Copan were acquainted with the septenary, cosmical division I have
traced.

My fellow archaeologists will understand the disadvantage of
issuing an investigation partly written a few years previously, and
will realize that, had I, at the outset, been in possession of all the
facts I have since learned, the present work would have been very
differently planned and executed. On the other hand, as it par
takes somewhat of the nature of a log-book, the reader is able to
follow closely my blundering course, and will recognize and appre
ciate some of its perils and difficulties. It being, unfortunately,
impossible to re- write the book. I shall have to be resigned to in
cur some criticism and blame for omissions, which could have been

4-tl

6 AUTHORS PREFACE.

averted. I shall, however, be content if my prolonged study of an
cient Mexican archaeology and the present research open out new
lines of investigation, and conclusively prove that primitive cross-
symbols and the swastika are universally accompanied by vestiges
of a certain set of cosmical conceptions and schemes of organiza
tion, which can be traced back to an original pole-star worship. I
can but think that the material I have collected will also lead to a
recognition that the role of the Phoenicians, as intermediaries of
ancient civilization, was greater than has been supposed, and that
it is imperative that future research be devoted to a fresh study
and examination of those indications which appear to show that
America must have been intermittently colonized by the interme
diation of Mediterranean seafarers.

To me the most interesting result of the present investigation
is the fact that, having once started on an unpremeditated course
of study, I found an unsuspected wealth of material and finally
attained one main, totally undreamed-of conclusion, concerning
the law governing the evolution of religion and civilization. This
leads me to think that, as I groped in darkness, searching for light,
I unwittingly struck the true key-note of that great universal theme
which humanity, with a growing perception of existing, universal
harmony, has ever been striving to seize and incorporate into their
lives. The fact that many of the transcriptions of the original
harmony have been and are discordant, and that they temporarily
obscure, instead of rendering, its sublime grandeur, unity and noble
simplicity, appears as the inevitable result of the mental activity,
ingenuity and creative imagination to which mankind also owes
its intellectual and spiritual progress.

In conclusion I regret my inability to express adequately my
grateful appreciation of the unfailing loyalty of those true friends,
in particular Prof. F. W. Putnam, who, trusting in the earnestness
of my purpose and endeavor, have constantly encouraged and
cheered me as they patiently awaited the long-delayed completion
of my work.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.,
DECEMBER 31, 1900.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF OLD AND
NEW WORLD CIVILIZATIONS.

ONE evening, in February, 1898, I left my desk and, stepping to
the window, looked out at Polaris and the circumpolar region of
the sky, with a newly awakened and eager interest.

For thirteen years I had been studying and collecting material
with the hope of obtaining some understanding of the calendar,
religion and cosmogony of the ancient Mexicans, but had hitherto
purposely refrained from formulating or expressing any conclusions
on the latter subjects having felt unable to extract a clear and
satisfactory understanding of the native beliefs from the chaotic
mass of accumulated data under which they lay like the ruin of an
ancient temple. Though frequently discouraged, I had, however,
never ceased to pursue my research and to note carefully the
slightest indication or suggestion which might prove of ultimate
value. Becoming utterly absorbed in the collection of such notes,
I found no time to publish anything during the past four years,
though realizing, with regret, that those interested in my work
might be disappointed at my delay in issuing the papers announced,
in 1894, as speedily forthcoming. Slowly but steadily, however,
I was gaining ground. Various excursions along new lines of re
search increased my experience and, in crossing and re-crossing the
field of ancient Mexico, I frequently had occasion to observe cer
tain familiar landmarks, from a new point of view, and illuminated
by rays of fresh light proceeding from recently acquired sources.
It was remarkable how often facts, which had seemed so hope
lessly complicated, finally appeared to be quite simple and compre
hensible. This was noticeably the case with the Aztec deities which,
for years, had seemed to me as numberless. After closely studying
their respective symbols, attributes and names, during several con
secutive months, and subjecting them to a final minute analysis, I
found that their number dwindled in a remarkable way and also
verified the truth of the statement made by the anonymous author
of the Biblioteca Nazionale manuscript which I was editing, that

443

8 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the Mexicans painted one and the same god under a different as
pect " with different colours," according to the various names they
gave him in each instance.

It was particularly interesting to find that, in assuming that
certain names designated different native deities, the early Span
ish writers had committed a mistake as great as though someone,
reading the litany of the Virgin in a Catholic prayer-book, for
the first time, inferred that it was a series of invocations addressed
to distinct divinities, amongst whom figured the " morning star,"
a "• mirror of justice," and a "mystical rose," etc. An examina
tion of the texts of several native prayers preserved, established
that the Mexicans addressed their prayers to a supreme Creator
and ruler, whom they termed " invisible, incomprehensible and im
palpable," and revered as " the father and mother of all." Some of
their so-called idols were, after all, either attempts to represent in
objective form, the attributes of the divine power, the forces of
nature, the elements, etc., or rebus figures. As these " gods " or
" idols " are enumerated farther on and are exhaustively treated in
my commentary of the Biblioteca Nazionale manuscript, now in
press, it suffices for my present purpose merely to mention here
that the most mysterious figure of Mexican cosmogony, Tezcatli-
poca, whose symbolical name literally means " shining mirror,"
proved to be identical with Mictlantecuhlli, the lord of the under
world, whose title may also be interpreted as u the ruler or regent
of the North," since Mictlampa is the name of this cardinal point.

The Codex Fuenleal (Anales del Museo Nacional, Mexico, tomo
n, p. 88) preserves an important myth relating how Tezcatiipoca,
after having been the sun, was cast down from this supreme posi
tion by Huitzilopochtli, ''descended to the water," but had arisen
again in the shape of an ocelot, and transformed himself into the
constellation of Ursa Major.

According to Saliagun the native name of this star-group was
Citlal-Colotl or " star scorpion." Reference to Nahuatl diction
aries revealed that this insect had doubtlessly been named colotl
on account of its habit of recurving its tail when enraged.

The Nahuatl verb coloa means, to bend over or twist something,
the adjective coltic is applied to something bent over or recurved.
The noun colotli, which is almost identical with colotl, means
"the cross-beams, the mounting, branch or handle of a cross"
(" armadura de manga de cruz." See Molina's dictionary).
444

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 9

The above facts show that the idea underlying the name for
Ursa Major is primarily that of u something bent over or re
curved." It is obvious that the form of the constellation answers to
this description. It is, moreover, extremely significant to find, in
the Maya language also, a certain resemblance between the words
for scorpion and for a cross. This, in Maya, is zin-che and that for
a scorpion is zin-au. The above data justify the induction that the
native conception of a cross was connected with the idea of its arms
being bent over or recurved, as in the Mexican calendar-swastika.

It is important to find the scorpion figured as one of several
symbols of Mictlautecuhtli, the lord of the North, in his sculp
tured effigy preserved at the National Museum of Mexico (fig. 19).

It is more significant that the verb coloa, besides meaning '• to
bend over or twist something," also expressed the action " of de
scribing or performing a circle by walking around something." Now
this is precisely what Tezcatlipoca (the Ursa Major) is represented
as doing on page 77 of the B.N. manuscript, since he figures there,
surrounded by a circle of footsteps. I could but note that this fact
showed that the name of Colotl, applied to the constellation, was
not incompatible with its identification with Tezcatlipoca. Once
my attention had been drawn to the action of walking, performed
by this god, I naturally considered, with fresh interest, the pecu
liar fact that he is usually represented with one foot only. The
circumstances under which he had been deprived of this member
are set forth in several of the Codices wherein we see that, after
he u descended to the water," he had an encounter with an alliga
tor, who had viciously bitten off his foot and carried it away. (See
Fejervary Codex, pp. 3 and 74. Vatican, n, p. 74.) Pictures
representing Tezcatlipoca, after this event, display the broken end
of the tibia exposed and the transverse section of the bone forming
a ring, usually painted efther white or red. Special pains seem to
have been taken to accentuate the hollowness of the bone ring,
since its centre is usually painted blue, the symbolical color of
air, and conventionalized puffs of breath or air are shown as is
suing from it (fig. 1). In some cases, as on the sculptured mono
lith called u the Stone of Tizoc," these symbols of breath, is
suing from the broken tibia, are figured in such a way that modern
writers, ignoring what they were meant 1o represent, were led to
identify them as some animal's tail attached to the foot of the
deity. The hollow circle and puffs of air, constantly associated

445

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

with the god, frequently figure as his ear ornament when his
broken tibia is concealed (fig. 2, no. 3). Besides certain fanciful
interpretations which have been given to this symbol, it has been
explained as being a hieroglyph conveying the name Tezcatlipoca,
and consisting of an obsidian mirror = tezcatl, and smoke =
poctli. A possible objection to this assertion might be that in
Mexican pictography, the mirror is invariably represented as jet-
black, in a white or red frame. In the Codex Telleriano Remen-
sis, a combination of symbols (of water, fire and a serpent) are
figured as issuing from the base of the bone (fig. 1, nos. 5, 6).
Having taken particular pains to collect all representations of the
footless god, I was specially interested in one (Fejervary, p. 1) in
which he is figured as standing on the cross-shaped symbol ollin,

FIG. i.

the accepted meaning of which is Four Movements. The most re
markable and puzzling picture I found, however, is that (fig. 1,
no. 2) in which the jaws of a tecpatl, the symbol of the North, are
represented as holding one of Tezcatl ipoca's ankles in a tight grip
and practically fastening him thus to the centre of a diagonal cross.
In this and other pictures (Codex Fejervary, 41, 43 and 96) it is
obvious that the artists had endeavored to convey the idea of a
person permanently attached to one spot by one foot. The only
form of locomotion possible to him would be to describe a circle
by hobbling on one foot around the other, which would serve as
an axis or pivot. The association of this peculiarity with the svm-
bols of the North impressed me deeply and involuntarily caused
446

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 11

me to think of a title bestowed in the Codex Fuenleal upon the
supreme divinity, namely, " The Wheel of the Winds; " as well as
of an expression employed by Tezozomoc (Cronica, p. 574). Re
ferring to the constellations revered by the natives, he mentions
" the North and its wheel."

Realizing that some definite and important meaning must un
derlie the remarkable representations of Tezcatlipoca, I resorted
to sill possible means to gain an understanding of them. Referring:
to Nahuatl dictionaries, I found a variety of synonymous names for
a person who limped or was lame or maimed. Amongst them was
Popoztequi from poztequi, the verb, " to break a leg." Other names
were xopuztequi, xotemol and Icxipuztequi (icxitl = foot). The
latter name happened to be familiar to me, for the commentator of
the Vatican Codex, Padre Rios, gives it as the name of a god and
translates it as " the lame devil." He records it immediately after
Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the North, and designates it as the name
of one of the four principal and primitive gods of the Mexicans.

The commentator of the Telleriano-Remensis Codex, moreover,
records that these four gods were " said to have been stars and had
fallen from the heavens. At the present time there are stars in
the firmament named after them" (Kingsborough, vol. v, pp. 132
and 162).

Other synonymous terms for lame persons were icxinecuiltic and
xonecuiltic. Tzimpuztequi, on the other hand, besides meaning
lame, also signified something crooked, bent or incurvated. The
second name furnished me with an important clue, for Sahagun dis
tinctly records that the native name for the constellation Ursa
Minor was Xonecuilli and that it was figured as an S (Ilistoria,
1. vn, cap. 3). Besides, the AcademiaMS. of his monumental work
contains the native drawing of this star-group reproduced as fig. 16,
no. 1. He also states that S-shaped loaves of bread named xone-
cuilli were made at a certain festival in honor of this constellation,
while the B.N.MS, records that a peculiar recurved weapon, figured
in the hands of deities, was named xouequitl (fig. 16, nos. 2 and 3) .

The above data furnished me with indisputable evidence of the
existence, in ancient Mexico, of a species of star cult connected
with the circumpolar constellations and with Tezcatlipoca, the lord
of the North, the central figure of the native cosmogony. It was
puzzling to find this god connected not only with the Ursa Major
but also with Ursa Minor, but an indication suggesting a possible

447

12 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

explanation or reconciliation of these apparent inconsistencies is
furnished by the descriptions of the strange ritual performance,
which was annually repeated at the festival Tlacaxipehualiztli and
was evidently the dramatization of a sacred myth.

As an illustration and a description of this rite are contained in
the H.N.MS, and the subject is fully treated in my commentary,
I shall but allude here to its salient features. It represented a
mortal combat between a prisoner, attached by a short piece of
cord to the centre of a large circular stone, and five warriors,
who fought him singly. The fifth, who was masked as an oce
lot and always obtained victory in the unequal contest, fought
with his left hand, being " left-handed," a peculiarity ascribed to
Huitzilopochtli. It wras he who subsequently wore the skin of the
flayed victim, an action which obviously symbolized a metamor
phosis. One point is obvious : this drama exhibits the victor as a
warrior who was able to circumscribe the stone freely and was
masked as an ocelot — Tezcatlipoca — the Ursa Major, but was
endowed, at the same time, with the left-handedness identified with
Huitzilopochtli. This mythical personage vanquishes and actually
wears the skin of the man attached to the stone ; becomes his em
bodiment, in point of fact, and obtains the supremacy for which he
had fought so desperately. In the light shed by the Codex Fuenleal,
before cited, it was easy to see that the entire performance drama
tized the mythical combat between Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli
for the position of the ruling power, in the heavens — the sun. At
the same time it was decidedly puzzling to find celestial supremacy
personified by a man, firmly fastened to one spot, the centre of a
stone circle. It was impossible not to perceive the identity of
thought underlying the representation of this prisoner and the pic
tures of Tezcatlipoca, the one-footed or lame god — Xonecuilli the
Ursa Minor. It was moreover of extreme interest to note the ex
istence of traditional records, preserved in the native myths, of
changes in the relative positions of celestial bodies and of the Ursa
Major in particular.

Whilst dwelling upon the striking analogy existing between the
representations of Tezcatlipoca held fast by the symbol of the
North and the prisoner attached to what is described either as " a
temalacatl, stone whorl" or "an image of the sun," my gaze fell
on a small model of the calendar-stone of Mexico, hanging above
my desk, and rested on the symbol Ollin in its centre. The learned
448

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

director of the National Museum of Mexico, Senor Troncoso
(Anales del Museo Nacional, vol. 11), had expressed his view
that this symbol was an actual figurative representation of the
annual apparent movements of the sun, and recorded its positions
at the solstitial and equinoctial periods. I had, moreover, sub
mitted a drawing of this same figure to the eminent English astron
omer, Prof. Norman Lockyer, and he had corroborated this view
and established its correctness. On the other hand, I had long
noted that the OUi-n was usually figured with an eye, the symbol
for star, in its centre (fig. 2, nos. 1, 3), and had also paid particular
attention to the fact that the Mexicans had conceived the ideas of
two suns, a young day sun and an ancient night or black sun. In
the B. N. MS., on the mantas worn at their respective festivals,
the day sun is depicted in a somewhat fanciful manner, in blue and

FKJ. 2.

red on a white field. The black sun is, however, represented in
classical style, so to speak, as on the sculptured calendar-stone,
with four larger and four smaller V-shaped rays issuing from it.
In this connection it is well to recall here that the Mexicans had no
specific name for the sun, beyond Tonatiuh, which merely means
•'that which sheds light" and could equally apply to the stars.
In the picture-writings the image of the sun was employed to con
vey the word Teotl. But we find that this word, assumed to be
equivalent to their " Dios " by the Spaniards, was also a reveren
tial title bestowed upon chieftains and superiors and was constantly
employed in the composition of words to signify something divine,
supremely beautiful, etc. Whilst I was pondering on the possibility
that the symbol Oil fn might have represented the movements of
the luminaries of night as well as the orb of day, my attention
became fixed upon the four numerals in each of the ends of the

P. M. PAPERS I 29 -^^^»RR A b v^^ta. 44 !>

1 4 KKY-NOTK <)K ANCIKNT

symbol and I was; struck by a certain resemblance between their
positions and those of the four stars which form the body of the
bear in the constellation of Ursa Major. It was then that it occurred
to me, as mentioned in the opening sentence of this introduction,
to look at the familiar constellations, with a view to verifying the
resemblance noted above. As my gaze sought 4i the pointers " in
Ursa Major, and then mechanically turned to Polaris, I thought of
some passages I had recently re-read, in Professor Lockyer's Dawn
of Astronomy, realizing that his observations, dealing with the lati
tude 26° (taking Thebes as representing Egypt) , could equally ap
ply to Mexico as this country stretches from latitude 15° to 31°.
"The moment primitive man began to observe anything, he must
have taken note of the stars, and as soon as he began to talk about
them he must have started by defining, in some way or other, the
particular star he meant .... Observers would first con
sider the brightest stars and separate them from the dimmer ones ;
they would then discuss the stars which never set (the circumpolar
constellations) and separate them from those which did rise and
set. Then they would naturally, in a northern clime, choose out
the constellation of the Great Hear or Orion, and for small groups,
the Pleiades (op. cit. p. 132) A fe\v years' observa
tion would have appeared to demonstrate the Absolute changeless-
ness of the places of the rising and setting of the same stars. It is
true that this result would have been found to be erroneous when
a long period of time had elapsed and when observation became
more accurate, but for hundreds of years the stars would certainly
appear to represent fixity, while the movements of the sun, moon
and planets would seem to be bound by no law. . . would appear
erratic, so long as the order of their movements was not known."
The reflection that Ursa Major was probably the first constella
tion which made any deep impression upon the mind of prehistoric
man in America, as elsewhere, lent an additional interest to the
star-group, as I concentrated my mind upon its form and endeav
ored to imagine it in four equidistant positions, corresponding to
the numerals in the symbol Ollin of the calendar-stone of Mexico
(fig. 2, no. 2).

T succeeded in obtaining, in succession, mental images of the
constellation in four opposite positions. This effort led to an un
foreseen result which surprised me. In a flash of mental vision I
perceived a quadrupled image of the entire constellation, standing
450

AMEKICAN CIVILIZATIONS. lO

out in scintillating brilliancy from the intense darkness of the
wintry sky (fig. 3, no. 3). At the same moment I saw that it bore
the semblance of a symmetrical swastika of giant proportions.
This fact, so unexpectedly realized, gave rise to such an absorbing
train of new ideas and interpretations of the data I had accumu
lated, that I left my window, on that memorable night, with a grow
ing perception of the deep and powerful influence the prolonged
observation of Polaris and the circumpolar constellations would
naturally have exerted upon the mind of primitive man. Deeply
impressed with the striking resemblance between the composite im-
ai^e of Polaris, Ursa Major, and certain forms of the swastika, I
started on a fresh line of investigation, and devoted myself to the
study of primitive astronomy and its influence upon the intellect-

ual development of mankind in general and the American races in
particular. After having worked, during thirteen years, without
any preconceived ideas about the ancient Mexican civilization and
without formulating any general conclusion concerning it, I saw all
the knowledge I had slowly acquired fall into rank and file and
organize itself into a simple and harmonious whole.

Realizing this I perceived how, with the origin of the swastika,
I had found the origin of the set of primeval ideas which had gov
erned the human race from its infancy and which, in Mexican and
Central American civilizations, ultimately developed into their in
genious system of government and social organization.

451

Museum Papers.

Vol I, No. 7, F*l. I.

v.i "i •'•••.

•A

* /*

*'* * f

// "*

•

s.s.

• **»•

,-••

V X .

A.E «/*

•J

,* •. •-•-.

. »**

W.S.

r/ ** ^»-.

/ *. %

* 7

JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT. JUST BEFORE

SUNSET. SUNRISE.

CHART OF THE POLAR CONSTELLATIONS.

A.1 vi&eurri Propers.

Vol. I, Xo. 7, r*l. II

•OCK SWASTIKA,

JPIRAL A'.O VOLOTfl
(Fi"« or many arrowl.)

* +!

OflKB AKt) SPIRAI, SWASTIKAS

Tetriwkelioii (four-nrmnl).

KOSMAL SWASTIKA HT7AVA8T1KA

GOLD HKOOCR WITH OOM 8WAJTULA.
Island of Fy«n.

VARIOUS FORMS OF TMK SWASTIKA

1 KK.V-NOTK <»i ANCIKNT

The sequel to the above episode was that, with the aid of my
movable star-chart, I made the following notes of the apparent
positions of the eircumpolar constellations at the times of sunrise,
midnight and sunset, choosing the periods of the solstices and
equinoxes in order to obtain an exact division of the year (pi. i).
Whilst studying these I realized that the midnight position was
the only stable one, since the actual visibility of the constellations
before dawn and after dusk would be subject to considerable vari
ation, according to seasons, latitudes and atmospherical conditions.
Having noted these positions, I next combined them separately,
obtaining the remarkable results given in fig. 4. The combined
midnight positions of the Ursa Major or Minor, at the four divi
sions of the year, yielded symmetrical swastikas, the forms of

I U l.

FIG. 4.

which were identical with the different types of swastika or cross-
symbols (the normal, ogee and volute, etc.), which have come
down to us from remote antiquity and are reproduced here for
comparison (pi. n, <i-f). Reflection showed me that such com
posite pictures of the Ursa constellations constituted an exact
record of their annual rotation, and afforded a perfect sign for
the period of a year. I moreover perceived how the association
of rotatory motion with the advance of time, and its division into
lixed periods or cycles, would be the natural outcome of the recog
nition of the annual rotation of the star-groups.

The Calendar-Swastika, or cross of ancient Mexico (pi. 11, g)
constitutes an absolute proof of the native association of the
cross-symbol with the ideas of rotatory motion and the progress of
454

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

time, and furnishes an indication that, in an analogous manner,
the swastika may have been primarily and generally employed by
primitive races, as a sign for a year or cycle. A close scrutiny of
the respective forms of the crosses yielded by Ursae Major and
Minor shows that the normal swastika and suavastika may be ex
plained as the separate representations of the two constellations —
the angular break in the outline of Ursa Major suggesting the
direction of the bend to the right of the arms of the normal swas
tika, whilst the form of Ursa Minor obviously suggests the bend
to the left which is characteristic of the suavastika.

My growing conviction that the Bear constellations had furnished

the archetype of the different forms of swastika and cross-sym
bols, found subsequent support when I referred to the map show
ing the geographical distribution of the ancient symbol published
by Prof. Thomas Wilson in his valuable and comprehensive mono
graph on the subject,1 to which I am indebted for much iuforma-

JThe Swastika. Report of the U. S. National Museum, 1>!)4. Washington, 189*!.
During the preparation of tin's paper I also consulted the following works, from
•which some forms of swastika are likewise reproduced on pi. ii: Le signe de la
Croix avaut le Christianisme. Gabriel de Mortillet. Paris, 1st;*;, /ur Geschichte
der Swastika. Zmigrodski, Braunschweig, 1*1*0. La migration de.- symboles. Comtc
Goblet d'Alviella. Paris, IS'Jl.

455

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

tion and several illustrations (pi. 11, a-/, etc.). The map, re
produced here (fig. 5), proves that, with two exceptions, which
can be attributed to a migration southward, the employment of the
swastika has been confined to the northern hemisphere, i. e,, pre
cisely to that portion of our globe from which the circumpolar con
stellations are visible.

The interesting possibility of being able to determine, approxi-

STAR-MAP, REPRESENTING THE PRECESSIONAL MOVEMENT OF THE CELESTIAL POLE

FROM THE YEAR 4000 B. c. TO THE YEAR 2000 A. D. (From Piazzi Smyth.}

FIG. 6.

mately, the date in the world's history when the swastika began to
be employed as a symbol, next occurred to me. Piazzi Smyth's
star-map, discussed and reproduced in Professor Lockyer's work
already cited (fig. 6), illustrates the changes of direction of the
456

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 21

earth's axis in space, which gives rise to what is called the preces
sion of the equinoxes and has a cycle of something like 25,000 or
26,000 years. Reference to this star-map (fig. 6) proved that the
observations, leading to the adoption of the swastika as a symbol,
could not possibly have been made until after Ursa Major had be
come circifmpolar, about 4,000 B. C. At that period, when Dra-
conis was the pole-star, the circle described about it by Ursa Major
was considerably closer than it is at present. The accompanying
illustrations (fig. 7), subject to correction, demonstrate the rela
tive distance of the constellation about 2,770 B. C., 1,800 B. C.,
and 2,000 A. D., and show how much more strikingly impressive
the polar region of the heavens was in remote antiquity.

Let us now briefly review some of the ideas which would natu
rally suggest themselves to the mind of the primitive observer,

after he had recognized the apparent immovability of the polar-
star, concentrated his attention upon this feature, and contrasted
it with the varying motions of all other celestial bodies in general
and with the rotation of the circumpolar star-groups in particular.
This recognition would lead to his gradually learning to utilize
Polaris as a means of ascertaining direction. Mis appreciation of
valuable guidance rendered in perilous wanderings would develop
feelings of trust, dependence and gratitude towards the one change
less star which permanently rendered valuable services and under
whose guidance difficult and essential nocturnal expeditious could
be safely undertaken. Superiority and, eventually, extensive su
pernatural power would more and more be attributed to it, as knowl
edge was gained of the laws of motion from which it alone seemed
to be exempt. This exemption would cause it to be viewed as supe
rior to all other heavenly bodies and even to the sun, and it is easy

457

22 KKY-XOTE OF A NCI EXT

to see how this idea, becoming predominant, might cause the cult
of the pole-star to disestablish an organized sun-cult amongst some
tribes. Historical evidence, to which I shall revert more fully. proves,
indeed, that a native American ruler and reformer actually employed
the following reasoning in order to convert his council and people
from the worship of the sun to that of a superior divinity which
could have been no other but Polaris : ktlt is not possible that the sun
should be the God who created all things, for if so he would some
times rest and light up the whole world from one spot. Thus it
cannot be otherwise but that there is someone who directs him and
this truly is the true Creator."

These words shed a whole flood of light upon primitive relig
ious ideas at an early stage of development. They prove that the
association of repose and immovability with the supreme power
signified a radical change of thought, based upon prolonged as
tronomical observation, and indicated intellectual advancement.
Attempts to render the new idea objective, to express it and im
press it upon the multitude, would naturally end in the production
of images of the supernatural power, representing or typifying
immovability, chaugelessuess, strength combined with absolute
repose.

It is thus rendered evident what a deep significance may be em
bodied in the rudest images of supernatural beings in attitudes of
repose, since a prolonged course of astronomical observation and
reasoning may have preceded their production.

Simultaneously with the recognition of Polaris as an immutable
centre of axial energy, the rotatory movement of Ursa Major must
have excited interest and observation. It wras inevitable that star-
gazers should gradually recognize a constant agreement between
certain positions of Ursa Major and Cassiopeia after dusk for in
stance, and the annual recurrence of rain, verdure and bountiful
food-supplies.

The members of a tribe who, more observant than others, had
learned to associate certain positions of these constellations with
the seasons and, as a consequence, were able to decide when expe
ditions to distant localities, in quest of game or fruit, might be
successfully undertaken, would naturally assume leadership and
command obedience and respect.

The sense of responsibility, superiority and, possibly, rivalry
would act upon such individuals as a powerful incentive to further
458

AMERICAN < 1VILI/ATION>. 23

observation ami thought and it. is evident that, as their mental
faculties expanded and one generation transmitted its store of ac
cumulated knowledge to the next, a regular caste of astronomer-
leaders would develop, with a tendency to conceal the secrets of
their power from the ignorant majority. A broken line, carved on
a rock by one of these primitive observers, would have constituted
a valuable secret note of the position of Ursa Major on a memo
rable occasion and would be looked upon as a mystic or magical
sign by the uninitiated. A series of such inscriptions might rep
resent the store of astronomical knowledge accumulated by several
generations of observers, and it is interesting to recognize that
such astronomical records as these were probably the tirst which
men were impelled to perpetuate in a lasting form ; since it was
absolutely necessary that they should be permanently available for
reference at prolonged intervals of time. What is more, the mere
fact of being obliged to refer to these inscriptions would cause the
astronomers to reside permanently in one locality. The habit of
consulting the prophet or oracle before undertaking important
steps, involving the welfare of the tribe, would gradually cause
the rocks or cavern in which he resided to be invested with a cer
tain sacredness.

It is thus evident that the first men, who rudely scratched the
outline of Ursa Major or Minor on a rock, took what was probably
one of the most momentous steps in the history of the human
race, and it is easy to see how a variety of combinations of cir
cumstances would have led many men, in widely-separated localities
and at different periods of the world's history, to perform precisely
the same action. In some cases, under favorable surroundings,
the rudimentary attempt would mark the starting point for a long
line of patient observation and study, which would inevitably lead
to the creation of centres of intellectual growth, to the association
of the different positions of the constellation with the seasons and
culminate in the habitual employment of a swastika as the sign
for a year, or cycle of time.1

1 I would insert liore Hint it was only when the present investigation was almost
completed, that my attention was arrested \>y a reference in Professor Wilson'.- work,
already cited, to a short article on the Fylfot and the Futhorc tir by II. ('o)ley
March, M.D.

Having succeeded in obtaining a copy of the Transactions of the Lancashire ami
Cheshire Antiquarian Society (vol. 4, pp. 1-12,1888), in which it appeared, I had the
extreme satisfaction of flndin.tr that a specialist working in another lield and ap
proaching the problem from another direction had come to two of the identical

459

The idea of rotation, associated with calendar signs and periods,
finds its most striking and convincing exemplification in the follow
ing description of the ancient Mexican game " of those who fly,"
translated from Clavigero (op. et ed. cit. p. 230). This perform
ance, which furnished a diversion to the Spaniards after the Con
quest, had evidently been, originally, connected with religious
ideas. "The Indians selected a tall, stout and straight tree, and,
lopping off its branches, planted it firmly in the centre of the great
square " (which was always situated in the centre of the city and
had four roads leading to it from the four quarters) . "On the
summit they placed a large cylinder of wood, the shape of which
was compared by the Spaniards to that of a mortar. Four strong
ropes hung from this and supported a square frame composed of
four wooden beams. Four other ropes were fastened by one end
to the pole itself and wound around it thirteen times. Their loose
ends were passed through holes in the middle of each beam and
hung from these. Four Indians, masked as eagles or other birds,
ascended the pole singly, by means of certain loops of cord, and
mounting on the cylinder they performed in this perilous position
a few dance-like movements. Each man then attached himself to
the loose end of one of the hanging ropes, and then, with a violent
jerk and at the same moment, the four men cast themselves into
space from their positions on the beams. This simultaneous move
ment caused the frame and cylinder to revolve and uncoil the ropes
to which the men were fastened and these descended to the
ground after performing a series of widening circles in the air.
Meanwhile a fifth individual, who had mounted the wooden cylin-

conclusions that I had reached in a totally different manner. This fact constitutes, in
my opinion, the most powerful support of the correctness of the views we hold in
coininon after having formed, expressed and worked them out in such a different
way, as can be verified by a comparison of our two works.

Referring the reader to his valuable and suggestive communication to which I shall
revert, I shall merely mention here that Dr. March recogni/es, as I do, that the "es
sential suggestion [of the swastika and fylfot] is of axial rotation." He attributes
the original of the swastika to the nocturnal (not as I do, to the annual) rotation of the
Trsa Major ::round Polaris, and likewise refers to the fact that about tour thousand
years ago, the circular sweep of the eircumpolar constellations was far more striking
than at present. After meeting on this common ground our lines of investigation
part company and go wide asunder, nor am I able to follow some of Dr. Maroh's con
clusions such as, for instance, his opinion that the fylfot was a sign of a " diurnal
rotation" suggested by "the rising and setting of the sun and moon when the specta
tor looked at them with his hack to the north." On the other hand I am indebted to
him for much valuable information relating to the rune or futhorc tir, to which I
shall refer later.

4(50

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 25

der after the others, stood on this as it revolved, beating a small
drum with one hand, whilst he held a banner aloft with the other."
Whilst it is obvious that this peculiar and dangerous performance
clearly symbolized axial rotation, typified by the revolving pivot
and the four men in aerial motion, its full meaning and intention are
only made clear by the following explanation recorded by Clavi-
gero. " The essential point in this game was to calculate so ex
actly the height of the pole and the length of the ropes, that the
men should describe precisely thirteen circles each before reaching
the ground, so as to represent the cycle (of 4 X 13 =) 52 years."

This passage constitutes absolute proof that the Mexican Calen
dar system was intimately associated with axial rotation and ideas
such as could only have been derived from observation of Polaris
and of the circumpolar constellations. The game itself was a
beautiful and well-conceived illustration of the flight of time, typi
fied by the aerial circles performed by the men masked as birds,
and of its methodical division into fixed periods.

Leaving the subject of the calendar for the present we must re
vert to my tables recording the apparent annual and nocturnal
axial rotation of the circumpolar constellations.

Whilst studying these the reflection naturally arose, that the
people who observed Ursa Major must have paid equal attention
to Cassiopeia and noticed that these constellations ever occupied
opposite positions to each other as they circled around the pole.
Dwelling on the fact that in ancient Mexico Ursa Major was asso
ciated with an ocelot, 1 remembered the many representations in
which an ocelot is represented as confronting an eagle, usually in
mortal combat. Mexican war-chiefs were classed into two equally
honorable grades, designated as the u ocelots and the quauhtlis,
i. e., eagles." The constellation of Cassiopeia presents to me, a
marked resemblance to the image of a bird with outspread wings,
whose head is turned toward Polaris. The fact that when this
star-group seems to be above. Ursa Major seems to be below, and
vice versa, would obviously suggest the idea of an eternal combat
between two adversaries who alternately succumbed and resusci
tated. It was interesting on reasoning further, to note that once
the above idea had taken root it must have been impossible not to
associate in course of time, the quadruped and the bird with the
elements to which they seemed to pertain, and gradually to con
ceive the idea of an everlasting antagonism between the powers of

461

26 KKY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the sky and of the earth, or light and darkness, and other opposites
which suggested themselves naturally, or were artificially created,
by the fertile mind of man. In this connection it should be ob
served that the mythical adversary of Tezcatlipoca, the ocelot,
designated as Ursa Major, is Huitzilopochtli, whose idol, in the
Great Temple of Mexico, represented him masked as a humming
bird (see Atlas Duran). The special reason why this bird became

associated with the god is ex
plained by the following passage
in Gomara (Histoire generale
des Jndes. Paris, 1584, chap.
96, p. 190) : " This bird died,
or rather fell asleep in the
month of October and remained
attached by its feet to a twig.
It awakened again in April when
the flowers blossomed. For this
reason, in the language of the
country it is named Huitzitzilin,
the resuscitated." We therefore
see that whilst it is stated in the
myth that the ocelot arose again after having been cast down from
the sky by Huitzilopochtli, the very name of the latter betokened
that the bird-god had also only just u resuscitated " from a presum
ably similar defeat.

As one and the same object may suggest several resemblances
at the same time or cons' nit 'Tely, and thus give rise to a group of
associations around a s' gle figure, I venture to point out that the
zigzag form of Cassiopeia may well have been compared to forked
lightning and caused the idea of lightning and thunder to become
indissolubly connected with the conception of a great celestial bird.
Again there is the possibility that the same star-group may have
more strikingly suggested, to other people, the idea of the winding
body of a serpent describing a perpetual circle around a central
star. In Mexico, as elsewhere, we find the serpent closely associ
ated with the idea of time. It is represented as encircling the cal
endar wheel published by Clavigero (fig. 8). Four loops, formed
of its body, mark the four divisions of the year. Twin serpents,
whose heads and tails almost meet, are sculptured around the
famous calendar-stone of Mexico. Four serpents whose bent
462

AMKKK'AX CIVILIZATIONS.

bodies form a large swastika and whose heads are directed towards
a central figure, are represented in the Codex Borgia in association
with calendar-signs (fig. 9, cf. Fejervary, p. 24). I shall have oc
casion to refer in detail to
Mexican serpent- symbolism
further on.

Meanwhile I would submit
the interesting results ob
tained on combining the po
sitions apparently assumed
by the circumpolar constella
tions during a single night.
The tables exhibit four com
posite groups representing
the positions at the solstitial
and equinoctial periods (fig.
10).

The night of the winter solstice, the longest of the year, yielded
alone a symmetrical figure. It resembled the well-known triske-
lion, the companion-symbol of the swastika (figs. 10 and 11).

FIG. '.».

s *

V.E.

s.s.

FIG. 10.

A.E.

W.S.

Just as this had proved to be the most natural of year symbols, so
the triskelion revealed itself as a natural sign of the winter solstice,
the period recognized and celebrated by most inhabitants of the

KKY-NOTK <>F ANCIKNT

northern hemisphere as the turning-point of the year. In a climate
like that of Mexieg and Central America, however, where the year

divided itself n

atnrally into a dry and a rainy season, it is evident
that the winter solstice would be less ob
served and that the ardently-desired recur
rence of the rainy season, after a long and
trying period of drought, should be re
garded as the animal event of utmost im
portance. Indeed, if carefully looked into,
the entire religions cult of these people
seems to express but one great struggling
cry to the God of Nature for life-giving rain,
and a hymn of thanksgiving for the annual,
precious, but uncertain gift of water.

To these supplicants the winter solstice
betokened little or nothing and it is not sur
prising to iind no proofs of the employment
of the triskelion as a sacred symbol in an
cient Mexico. On the other hand, it has
been traced by Mr. Willoughby on pottery
from Arkansas, and in Scandinavia, where
the circumpolar constellations have doubt
lessly been observed from remote times, and
the winter solstice has ever been hailed
as the herald of coming spring, the tris
kelion is often found associated with the
swastika.

I am indebted to Prof. Thomas Wilson's
work already cited for the two following
illustrations of objects exhibiting this as
sociation. The first is a spearhead found
in Brandenburg, Germany (fig. 12). The
second is a bronze brooch from Scandinavia,
presently revert (lig. !•>). It exhibits, besides the

triskelion, swastika and circle, the S-shaped figure which was, as
I shall show further on, the sign actually employed by the ancient
Mexicans and Mayas as the image of the constellation Ursa Minor,
whose outline it indeed effectually reproduces.

Before referring to the Mexican and Maya representations of
the star-group, I would next demonstrate that the sacred numbers
of Mexico, and of other countries situated
in the northern hemisphere, coincide exactly
with the number of stars in the circumpolar
constellations themselves and in simple com
binations of the same.

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor each con
tains seven stars, and the number seven is
the most widely-spread sacred number.
Ancient traditions record that the race in
habiting Mexico consisted of seven tribes
who traced their separate origins to seven
caves, situated in the north. In memory of
these, at the time of the Conquest, there
were seven places of sacrifice in the city of
Mexico. I shall recur to the number seven
further on, in discussing the native social
organization, and now direct attention to
the five stars of Cassiopeia and to the fact
that the combination of the stars in this con
stellation Avith Polaris and Ursa Major yields the number thirteen.
This result is specially interesting since the entire Calendar-system
of Mexico and Yucatan is based on the combination of the nu
merals 13 -f- 7 — 20, the latter again being 4X5.

On the other hand the same number, 13, is also obtained by the
combination of the Ursa? stnr-groups with Polaris. The number
f> is constantly yielded by Cassiopeia and the four-fold repetitions
of the groups supply the suggestion of the number 4. The com
bination of Ursa Minor and Cassiopeia yields 12. The accompany
ing figure exhibits swastikas composed of Ursa Minor accompanied
by Ursa Major and Cassiopeia separated mid combined (fig. 14).
I next direct attention to the peculiar difference in the numerical
values of the Ursa1 swastikas.

In the first, the central star, surrounded by four repetitions of
the seven-star constellation, yielded a total of twenty-nine stars —
3o 4<;r>

FIG. 13.

30 KKY-NOTK OK ANCIKNT

4 X 5 ~f- 0. Furtlier combinations will be Seen by a glance at the'
Ursa Major swastika (fig. 4). The analysis of the Ursa Minor
swastika is not so simple and occasions a certain perplexity.

When I had first combined the four positions of this constellation,
I had, naturally, and without farther thought, figured Polaris but
once, as the fixed centre, whereas I had repeated the other stars of
the compact group four times. It was not until I began to count
the stars in the swastika that I realized how I had, unconsciously,
made one central star stand for four, and thus deprived the com
posite group of the numerical value of three stars. On the other
hand, if I repeated the entire constellation four times, I obtained a
swastika with four repetitions of Polaris in the middle. In this
way, however, Polaris became displaced, and the idea of a fixed
centre was entirely lost. A third possible method of composing
the swastika was to allow one central star for each cross-arm.

FIG. 14.

But this gave two central stars, each of which would represent two
stars. Unless enclosed in a circle and considered as a central
group by themselves, the four and the two repetitions of Polaris
could not convey the idea of a pivot or fixed centre. The three
respective numerical values obtained from these experimental com
binations were 4 X (> -f- 1 — 25, 4 X 7 — 2<S, and finally 2X13 or
4 X 6 -}- 2 =3 2G. In each swastika the central star forcibly stood
for and represented two or four (fig. 15).

In the triskelions the same perplexity arose : if Polaris was re
peated, the idea of a fixed centre was lost (fig. 15) ; if figured
singly, it nevertheless necessarily and inevitably stood as an em
bodiment of three stars. Reasoning from my own experience, I
could but perceive, in the foregoing facts, a fruitful and constant
source of mental suggestions, the natural outcome of which would
be the association of the central star with an enhanced numerical

4CG

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 31

value, and a familiarity with the idea of one star being an embodi
ment of two, three or four.

As the evolution of religious thought and symbolism progressed,
this idea would obviously lead to the conception of a single being
uniting several natures in his person. In this connection it is cer
tainly extremely interesting to find the serpent associated with the
Calendar in Mexico and Yucatan, its Nahuatl name being homony-
mous for twin, i. e. two, and the Maya for serpent, can or cam,
being homonymous for the number four. The serpent was, there
fore, in both countries the most suggestive and appropriate symbol

FIG. 15.

which could possibly have been employed in pictography, to con
vey the idea of dual or quadruple natures embodied in a single
figure.1 Added to this the circumstance that, to the native mind,
the serpent, upon merely shedding its skin, lived again, we can
understand why the ancient Mexicans not only employed it as a

1 Besides the word c¥o«<Z = twin, the Mexicans had another term to express some
thing double, in pairs. A plant with two shoots was named xolotl. Double agave
plants, or maize when occasionally met with, were regarded with superstition and
named me-xolotl. The pretty little parroquets, popularly known as '• love-birds "
from their habit of constant association, in pairs, were named xolotl. The circum
stance that the term for birds'-down was also xolotl may explain why the down-feathers
of eagles and other birds were employed and played a certain role in ritual observances.
They expressed and conveyed the sound of a word which meant something double
and could therefore be used to symbolize a variety of meanings relating to multipli
cation or propagation. That the Mexicans figuratively connected birds'-down with
generation is proven by the well-known myth of the birth of Huitzilopochtli from the
union of a ball of birds'-down and a goddess named '-she with the petticoat of ser
pents" (Sahagun, book in, chap. I).

Tufts of birds'-down figure, in the B. X. MS., on the shield of the female ancestress
of the human race, one of whose numerous titles was toci, = -- our grandmother,"
to express which the figure of a citli or hare was sometimes employed in pictog
raphy. Of her it was said, that she bore only twins, a figure of .speech meaning great
productiveness, just as tbe female divinity is also termed "the woman with 400
breasts " (text to p. 29, Vatican Codex, Kingsborough, vols. II and v). In the text to
the Telleriano-Remensis Codex (Kingsborough, vol. I, pi. 24), we lind Xolotl, a deity
wearing the shell-symbol of Quetzalcoatl, directly named " the god of twins."

467

32 KKY-NOTK <>F ANCIENT

symbol of an eternal renewal or continuation of time and of life,
but also combined it with the idea of fecundity and reproductiveness.
In Yucatan where the Maya for serpent, am, is almost homony-
mous witli rmtn = sky or heaven and the adjective cuanlil — celes
tial, divine, the idea of a divine or celestial serpent would naturally
suggest itself. It is therefore not surprising to find, in both coun
tries, the name of wr/x>nt bestowed as a title upon a supreme, ce
lestial embodiment of the forces of nature and its image employed
to express this association in objective form. In Yucatan one
of the surnames of Itzamna, the supreme divinity, was Canil, a
name clearly related to cctanlil — divine and can — serpent.

In Mexico the duality and generative force implied by the word
"coatl" are clearly recognizable in the native invocations addressed
to "Our lord Quetzalcoatl the Creator and Maker or Former, who
dwells in heaven and is the lord of the earth [Tlaltecuhtli] ; who is
our celestial father and mother, great lord and great lady, whose
title is Ome-Tecuhtli [literally, two-lord = twin lord] and Ome-
Cihuatl [literally, two-lady = twin lady"] (Sahagun, book vi, chaps.
2f), 32 and 34).

The following data will suffice to render it quite clear that the
Mexicans and Mayas employed the serpent as an expressive sym
bol merely, signifying the generative force of the Creator to whom
alone they rendered homage. It is no less an authority than Friar
Bartholomew de las Casas who maintained that " in many parts of
the [American] Continent, the natives had a particular knowledge
of the true God ; they believed that lie created the Universe and
was its Lord and governed it. And it was to Him they addressed
their sacrifices, their cult and homage, in their necessities . . ."
(Historia Apologetica, chap. 121).

Friar Bartholomew specially adds that this was the case in Mex
ico according to the authority of Spanish missionaries and no one
can doubt that this was the case when they read that in the native
invocations, preserved by Sahagun, the supreme divinity is de
scribed as k> invisible and intangible, like the air, like the darkness
of night," or as the tl lord who is always present in all places, who
is [as impenetrable as] an abyss, who is named the wind [air or
breath] and the night." "All things obey him, the order of the uni
verse depends upon his will — lie is the creator, sustainer, the om
nipotent and omniscient." He is termed "the father and mother of
all," " the great god and the great goddess." " our lord and protec-
408

AMKI.TfAN riVILI/ATfOXS. 33

tor who is most powerful and most humane," -— ''our lord in whose
power it is to bestow all contentment, sweetness, happiness, wealth
and prosperity, because thou alone art the lord of all things."
One prayer concludes thus: "Live and reign forever in Mil
peace and repose thou who art our lord, our shelter, our comfort,
who art most kind, most bountiful, invisible and impalpable!"
(Sahagun, book vi, on the rhetoric, moral philosophy and the
ology of the Mexicans, chaps. 1-40). Jt is related that, in grati
tude for the birth of a son, the ruler of Texcoco, Nezahual-coyotl
erected a temple to the Unknown God ... It consisted of
nine stories, to symbolize the nine heavens. The exterior of the
tenth, which formed the top of the nine other stories, was painted
black with stars. Its interior was encrusted with gold, precious
stones and feathers and held " the said god, who was unknown,
unseen, shapeless and formless" (Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichi-
meca ed. Chavero, p. 227 ; see also p. 244). A passage in Saha
gun (book vi, chap, vn) states that "the invisible and imageless
god of the Chichimecs was named Yoalli-ehecatl [literally, night-air
or wind], which means the invisible and impalpable god
by whose virtue all live, who directs by merely exerting his wis
dom and will." In the Codex Fuenleal (chap.
1) the remarkable title of " wheel of the winds
=i Yahualliehecatl," is recorded as "another
name for Quetzalcoatl." This undeniably
proves that the Mexicans not only figured the
Deity by the image of a serpent but also
thought of him as a wheel which obviously
symbolized centrical force, rotation, lordship
over the four quarters,/. ?., universal rulership.

Returning from these ideas of later development to the primitive
source of their suggestion, let us now examine the native picture
of Xonecuilli, Ursa Minor, preserved in the unpublished Acade-
mia MS. of Sahagun's Historia, in Madrid (fig. 1C, no. 1 ). It is an
exact representation of the star-group. The fact that the seven
stars are figured of the same size in accurate relation to each other,
either proves that the eyesight of the native astronomers was ex
tremely keen and their atmosphere remarkably clear, or that possi
bly, the minor stars of the group were more brilliant in ancient
times, than they are now. Astronomers tell us, for instance, that

4G9

34 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

as late as the seventeenth century the star in the body of Ursa
Major nearest to the tail, was as bright as the others, while it is
now of the fourth magnitude only.

It must be admitted that the shape of the constellation resembles
an S. An SS sign is mentioned by Sahagun (Historia, book vm,
chap. <S) as occurring frequently, as a symbolical design on native
textile fabrics. It figures as such, in the black garments of the
female consort of Mictlantecuhtli in the Vienna Codex, pp. 23 and
33. He denounces it as suspect and hints that it was intimately
connected with the ancient religion.

S-shaped sacred cakes, called Xonecuilli, were made during the
feast of Macuilxochitl i= five flowers, and are figured (fig. 16, no. 2)
in the B. N. MS. (p. 69) with a four-cornered cross-shaped cake of
a peculiar form (fig. 20, in), which is found associated with five
dots or circles in the Codices and also with the Tecpatl-symbol of
the North (fig. 20, i and n).

A recurved staff, which is held in the hand of a deity in the
B. N. MS. is designated in the text as a xonoquitl (fig. 16, no. 3).
Amongst the insignia of the u gods," sent as presents by Monte-
zuma to Cortes upon his landing at Vera Cruz, were three such
recurved " sceptres," the descriptions of which I have collated
and translated in my paper on the Atlatl or Spear-thrower of the
Ancient Mexicans (Peabody Museum Papers, vol. 1, no. 3, Cam
bridge, 1891, p. 22). In this work I presented my reasons for
concluding that these recurved sceptres were ceremonial forms of
the atlatl. I now perceive that they were endowed with deeper
significance and meaning. The Nahuatl text of Sahagun's Lauren-
tian MS. of the Historia de la Conquista (lib. xn, chap, iv) re
cords the name of one of these staffs as " hecaxonecuilli," literally
u the curved or bent over, air or wind," and describes it as made
of " bent or curved wood, inlaid with stars formed of white jade =
chalchihuite." This passage authorizes the conclusion that four
representations in the B. N. MS. of black recurved sceptres, ex
hibiting a series of white dots, are also heca-xonoquitl, inlaid with
stars, and that all of these are none other but conventional repre
sentations of the constellation Xonecuilli, the Ursa Minor. In
each case the deity, carrying the star-image, also displays the eca-
cozcatl the " jewel of the wind," the well-known symbol of the
wind-god. In one of these pictures (p. 50) he not only bears in
470

AMKRIfAX CIVILIZATIONS.

his hand the star-image, but also exhibits a star-group on his head
dress, consisting of a central-star, on a dark ground, surrounded
by a blue ring. Attached to this against a dark ground, six other
stars are depicted, making seven in all. In connection with this
star-group it is interesting to note that the hieroglyph, designated
by Fra Diego de Landa as " the character with __

which the Mayas began their count of days or
calendar and named Hun-Imix," furnishes a case
of an identical though inverted group (Relacion
de las Cosas de Yucatan, ed. B. de Bourbourg,
p. 237). Enclosed in a black ring, the glyph dis
plays, above, a large black dot with six smaller
ones grouped in a semicircle about it. and below,
four perpendicular bars.

Subject to correction, I am inclined to interpret
this glyph as a hieratic sign for the constellation
Ursa Minor and its four movements, and to con
sider it as furnishing a valuable proof of the ori
gin of the Maya Calendar.

The seemingly inappropriate procedure of tig-
u ring shining stars by black dots actually fur
nishes the strongest proof that a star group is
thus represented ; for, in the Maya language,
" ek" is a homonym for star and black, and a
black spot was, in consequence, the most expres
sive sign for a star. This fact affords a valuable
explanation of the reason why the ocelot, whose
skin is spotted with black, was employed as the
figure of the nocturnal sky, and clearly proves
that the Mexicans adopted this symbol and its
meaning from the Mayas.

We will now revert to the S-shaped sign. Its
association with images of star is further exem
plified in Mexican Codices. It occurs on the wall
of a temple, in combination with symbols for stars
and the North-Mictlan, which consist in this case, of skulls and
cross-bones (fig. 17, rr).

In the Dresden Codex, of Maya origin, there is an extremely
important page on which the S-sign occurs in connection with twin
deities, besides rain and cross symbols (fig. 17, i). A careful ex-

471

36 KKY-NOTK <)K ANCIENT

animation of the group shows that one of the seated figures is
accompanied by a downpour of water (painted blue in the origi
nal), besides the S-symbol which is also repeated above the head
of his companion. Higher up, on the same page, the S occurs again
in a group of glyphs alongside of twin-seated figures. These, as
well as the single-seated form beneath them, have an eye or a large
black spot surmounted by dots instead of a head (Vocabulaire
de 1'ecriture hieratique de Yucatan, p. 38). Monsieur Leon de
Rosny has identified this figure, which also occurs in the Codex
Troano, as the image of the supreme divinity of the Mayas, of
whom more anon, one of whose titles was Kin-ich-ahau, literally
Sun-eye lord.

A similar sign consisting of the lower half of a human body
seated, with a large eye on its knees is repeated several times in
the Borgian Codex. This form is also figured as seated in a tem
ple, without the eye-star, but three stars are on the roof and the
S-sign is on the lower wall of the building (Borgian Codex, p. 16).

The above facts demonstrate that, in both MSS. derived from
different sources, the same association of ideas is expressed.1 The
S sign appears in connection with twin- or single-seated forms, sur
mounted by a symbol for star. It is unnecessary for me to lay
further stress upon the obvious facts : that the only celestial body
which could possibly have been associated with a seated form, sug
gesting repose, was Polaris. It is. moreover, only by assuming that
the sign of the seated star represents the stationary pole-star that
its combination in the Codices with the S-sign — Xonecuilli — Ursa
Minor, can be understood. I likewise draw attention to the pos
sibility that the S, or single representation of the constellation,
may well have been employed as a sign for the summer solstice,

rrhe full meaning whic.li may have been attached to the eye-symbol in both Nah-
natl and Maya languages is set forth in the following notes which T give merely for
the suggestion they convey of a deep meaning having been attached to the eye sym
bol. The Nahuatl word for eye is ix-trlolotli, but. in pictography il represented the
phonetic value of ix only. It may, therefore, have been employed as a cursive
sign for face=/.r?//' and the fact that it figures in the centre of the symbol ofliii, where
a face sometimes occurs, confirms this surmise. In the Maya language the word for
eye is ich, which is practically identical with the Nahuatl ix, and this enters into the
composition of the following words, the meanings of which are worth considering in
connection with the fact that the eye is shown to have been employed to convey the
meaning of star, in both languages: Ix-machun— eternal, without beginning, ix-
mayam = forever, continuously, without interruption, ix-maxul = perpetual, without
end. The fact that each of these Maya words exhibits the prefix ix and that an eye
is employed to express this sound and stands for star, is certainly interesting, since
it suggests that the natives associated the idea of eternity with the stars.

472

AMKKK'AN CIVILIZATIONS.

since, in some localities, during the shortest night of the year,
Ursa Minor may have been visible in one position only. Assuming
that the triskelion was the sign for the winter solstice we should
thus have natural signs for the two nights marking the turning-
points of light and darkness in the year.

Reverting to fig. 17, i, from the Codex Dresden!*, I draw atten
tion that it furnishes definite proof that the Mayas associated the
idea of the immovable seated star with twin deities and that they
connected the S-symbol with cross and rain symbols. A striking
combination of the latter symbols is represented under the princi
pal seated figures. It con
sists of a diagonal cross trav
ersed perpendicularly by a
band of blue water.

Further Maya cross-sym
bols should be cursorily ex
amined here, viz: fig. IS, i,
n, in, vi, vn and vin. They
will be found to consist of

also found.

FIG

Tin-

v a r i a t ions of two funda
mental types, often figured
alongside of each other and
enclosed in a square, or cir
cle. One type consists of two
diagonally crossed bars,
plain or representing cross
bones (i). A rectilinear cross
ls- with interlaced circle (n) is

other type exhibits a small cross, square, cir
cle or dot in the centre of the square with a circle in each corner.
In some cases these are united by a series of dots to the central
circle and thus form a diagonal cross (vi and VIM) which is
sometimes figured as contained in a flower with four petals, such
as is also found in Mexican symbolism. The diagonal, dotted
cross is frequently combined with four pairs of black bars, placed
in the middle of each side of the square, pointing towards the
centre. Similar pairs of black bars are figured in the H. N. MS.
(p. 3) on the manta of Mictlantecuhtli, with stars, around one of
his symbols, a spider. They likewise recur on two of several sac
rificial papers on p. 60, amongst which one exhibits a diagonal

473

38 KKY-NOTK OF ANTTKNT

cross, another the S-sign, while others display realistic drawings
of stars with six or eight points.

The pairs of bars figure in the hieroglyph designated by Maya
scholars as the sign for A7?i, the sun, which may be seen in the
centre of large diagonal cross-symbols in fig. 18, vn, vin, from
the Dresden Codex. The cross, of fig. 18, vn, is composed of
two bones and two arrowpoiuts, a particularly interesting com
bination considering that in the Maya a bone is ftafc, an arrow is
kdb-cheil and the name given to the gods of the four quarters "the
sustainers of the world," is Bakub. It cannot be denied that the
phonetic elements of this name occur in the words for bones and
arrows which form the cross, symbolic of the four quarters. In
fig. 18, vni, the cross may be composed of four bones, but of
this I am not certain. In both cases, however, the crosses rest on
a curious double and parti-colored symbol and are associated with
serpent signs, in which the open jaws and teeth are prominent
features. It is noteworthy that while "can" or "cam" is the
Maya for serpent, the word "camach" means jaw. The figure
consisting of the upper jaw only of a serpent, in the left hand
corner of the band above, fig. 18, vin, proves, therefore, to be a
cursive phonetic sign for serpent.

The parti-colored symbol combined with the cross obviously
signifies a duality, such as light and darkness, the Above and
the Below and a series of dualities — possibly the two divisions of
the year, the dry and rainy seasons. In Mexico we are authorized
by documentary evidence, to give a wider and deeper interpreta
tion to the symbol of duality, for it can be absolutely proven that
the Mexican philosophers divided the heavens into two imaginary
portions, and respectively identified these with the male and female
principles.

In Nahuatl the West was designated as Cihuatlampa, "the place
or part of the women." The souls of the women who had earned
immortality were supposed to dwell there, whilst the souls of the
men resided in the East. In the appendix to book in of Saha-
gun's Historia, it is described how, according to the native belief,
the souls of the male warriors hailed the daily appearance of the
sun above the eastern horizon, and escorted it to Nepantla, the
zenith. Here the souls of the women awaited it and assumed
the duty of escorting the sun to the western horizon, the symbol
for which was calli = the house. The above passage indicates that
474

AMKKH AN ( I VI I.I/. ATK >XS. 39

the native philosophers imagined across the middle of the sky a
line of demarcation, separating the portions of the heaven respect
ively allotted to the male and female souls. For four years after
death these souls retained their human form, and then, after passing
through nine successive heavens, entered into the celestial paradise
where they assumed the forms of different kinds of butterflies and
humming-birds. The names of these are enumerated in the Na-
huatl text of Sahaguu's Laurentian MS. (book in).1 The sym
bolism of the humming-bird has already been explained by a
passage cited from Gomara's Historia. In this connection it is
extreme!}' interesting to find the humming-bird represented in the
B. N. MS., as sucking honey from a flower, which is attached by
a cord, covered with bird's down, to a bone, the symbol of death.

This peculiar but expressive group of symbols figures only on
the head-dresses of deities wearing certain other symbols, amongst
which we find the Eca-cozcatl and Eca-xonequilli the image of
Ursa Minor, already described.

The merest indication of the association of a circumpolar con
stellation with the idea of death (disappearance) and resurrection
(re-appearance) is of special interest, since the ancient Mexicans
located the Underworld, the "place of the dead," in the North.
Reflection showed, however, that such an association could only
have suggested itself to the minds of star-observers living in
southern latitudes, approximate to the equator, or in localities
where the northern horizon was more or less shut off from view by
intervening mountains. In such places Polaris would appear com
paratively close to the boundary-line of the northern sky so that

1 This native belief is beautifully illustrated by tlie two " highly artistic shell-gor
gets representing winged human beings," which are described and figured by Mr.
Win. II. Holmes, in Part II of his instructive and extremely useful " Archaeological
Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico," which I have received just as this paper
is going to press. I am much pleased at the possibility of drawing attention, by
means of a footnote, to the interesting fact that in one gorget the human head is
figured with butterfly wings, whilst in the other it is accompanied by conventional
ized feathers and a butterfly-wing. There can be no doubt that both gorgets are at
tempts to represent the resuscitated souls of departed warriors, according to the native
ideas concerning them. It is nevertheless very remarkable to see actually that the
ancient Mexicans employed the butterlly as a symbol of an immortal soul and had
also evolved the idea of a winged head, analogous to that of a cherub, to represent a
blest spirit, dwelling in celestial regions.

It is noticeable that the name of the Mexican priests was pnpn, which syllables are
the first in the word papalotl = butterfly. It may be that a distinction was made and
that the souls of the dead priests were supposed to assume the shape of butterflies
or moths, whilst the warriors became celestial humming-birds.

475

40 KKY-NOTK <>F ANCIKXT

the Ursa constellations and Cassiopeia would be invisible to the
local astronomers at midnight during that period of the year when
one or the other of the star- groups seemingly stretched between
Polaris and the northern horizon. A glance at plate I shows that,
at the present time, it is about the period of the autumnal equi
nox that Ursa Minor would be invisible at midnight, in such local
ities, while Ursa Major would gradually disappear from view towards
midnight, during a certain number of nights, according to latitude
and locality, between the autumnal equinox and Hie winter sol
stice whilst Cassiopeia would seem to hover above the horizon.
The total or partial alternate periodical disappearance of the two
most familiar star-groups in the extreme North and their re-ap
pearance after sometimes regular intervals of time could but have
made a profound impression upon primitive astronomers and
thinkers. Whilst the mere periodical reversal of the positions of
Cassiopeia and Ursa Major suggested alternate victory and defeat,
the actual though brief and partial disappearance of either star-
group must have appeared to be a descent into an under-ground
space, associated with darkness and death, followed by a resurrec
tion. In his Cronica, Tezozomoc records, besides Mictlan (the land
of the dead), another name for the underworld, Opochcal-ocan,
literally, the place of the house to the left. This appellation
can only be understood when it is realized that, in a sufficiently
southern latitude, an observer, watching the setting of a circum-
polar constellation below the horizon, would always see it dis
appear to his left and subsequently rise to his right. It is evident
that in time this fact would give rise to the association of the
left with the underworld, the lower region, and the right with the
region above. The native idea of a dwelling in the underworld is
further demonstrated by the bestowal of the symbol e«Ui =. house,
upon the western horizon below which all heavenly bodies were
seen to disappear. A definite connection between the West and
one half of the North being thus established, it would naturally
result that a corresponding union of the South and East would be
thought of in time, and that these quarters would become asso
ciated with the rising of celestial bodies, /. ^., with light, the
Above, wrhile the opposite quarters became identified with their
setting, i. e., with darkness, the Below.

Pausing to review the foregoing conclusions, which I have shown
476

AMKUK AN CIVILIZATIONS. 41

to be the natural and inevitable result of simple but prolonged
astronomical studies, observation and plain reasoning we see that

I O "

they led to a conception of the Cosmos as divided into seven parts,
i. P., the fixed Centre, the pivot, primarily suggested by Polaris
who was regarded as the creative, generative and ruling power of
the universe ; the Four Quarters, seemingly ruled by the central
force and associated with the elements ; the Above and the Below,
suggested by the rising and setting of celestial bodies and asso
ciated with light and darkness, sky and earth, etc., etc.

Many of my readers will doubtless recognize at once that the
above organization of the Cosmos into the Centre or Middle, the
Above and the Below, and the Four Quarters, is precisely that
which the Zufii priests taught Mr. Frank dishing, when they ini
tiated him into their secret beliefs. Other explorers have recorded
the same conception amongst different native American tribes and
with these proofs that this set of ideas is still held on our Conti
nent at the present time, I point out the fact that the Maya figures
(fig. 18, vn and viri, from the Dresden Codex) become perfectly in
telligible only when interpreted as representing the Centre, the Four
Quarters, the Above and the Below, the latter figured by the dark
and light halves of the dual sign. Furthermore, I can demonstrate
that this fundamental set of elementary, abstract ideas, furnishing
the first principles of organization, is plainly visible under the sur
face of the ancient Mexican civilization and can be traced not
only in Yucatan and Central America, but also in Peru. In these
countries, as I shall show, it assumed an absolute dominion over
the minds of the native sages, directly suggesting the forms of
government and social organization existing at the time of the
Conquest and faintly surviving to the present day. It entirely
controlled the development of aboriginal religious cult and philo
sophical speculations and pervaded not only the native architec
ture and decorative art, but also all superstitious rites and cere
monies, and entered into the very games and pastimes of the people.

The following table presents the bare outline of the scheme of
organization exposed in the preceding text. In making it I have,
after d-ue consideration, definitel}T adopted the assignment of the
Mexican symbols and colors to the cardinal points given by Friar
Duran in the Calendar-swastika contained in his atlas and repro
duced (pi. II, f/) .

477

KKV-NOTK OF ANCIKNT

North.

West.

South.

East.

Symbol :

Tecpatl, Flint.

Calli, House.

Acatl, Cane.

Tochtli,

Color :

lied.

Yellow.

Blue.

Green.

Element :

Fire.

Earth.

Air.

Water.

Warmth.

Darkness.

Breath.

Kain.

The Below.
The " female" region.
TEZCATLIPOCA =
MICTLANTECUHTLI.

I
The Above.

The ;' male " region.
HUITZILOPOCHTLI.

The Centre.

The dual, generative, ruling and directive Force.

QUETZALCOATL.

The Divine Twin.

Before proceeding to examine more closely the great edifice of
human thought which was reared, in the course of centuries, on
the ground plan designated above, we must retrace our steps and
consider what a deep impression the gradual realization of the
changes in the relative positions of Polaris and certain familiar
star-groups must have produced upon those who were the first to
realize them. Transporting ourselves back to the gray dawn of
civilization, lot us endeavor to understand the position of the na
tive priest astronomers who, having received and transmitted a set
of religious and cosmical ideas, based on the assumption of the
absolute and eternal immutability of the centre of the heaven,
Polaris, gradually became aware that it also was subject to change,
evidently obeyed an unseen higher power and that the ancient order
of things, recorded b}T their predecessors, had actually passed away.

It is obvious that, in all centres of astronomical observation
and intellectual culture, a complete revolution of fundamental doc
trine or thought must have taken place. A period of painful mis
givings and doubt must have been passed through, during which
an earnest and anxious observation of all celestial bodies must
have seemed imperative and obligatory. Under such circumstances
astronomy must have made great strides and astronomical observa
tion become the foremost and highest duty of the intellectual leaders
of the native races. Pyramids and temples would be built for the
purpose of verifying and recording the positions of sun, moon,
planets and stars, and the orientation of these buildings would be
478

AMERICAN CI\ II.I/ATIONS. 43

carefully planned accordingly. Before obtaining glimpses of the
great evolution of religious thought which progressed on our Con
tinent in olden times, it is well to realize, by means of Piazzi
Smyth's map (fig. 6) that the world ceased to possess a brilliantly
conspicuous, absolutely immovable pole-star for a prolonged period
of time, stretching somewhere between 500 B.C. and 1200 A.I).

The ancient native chronicles record that under " divine " leader
ship great migrations of tribes took place within this period, the
purpose of which was to find a locality which fulfilled certain ar
dently-desired conditions connected with religious cult.

From various centres of civilization in Mexico and Central
America we also hear different accounts of how, at different times,
small bauds of earnest men, under a leader of superior intelli
gence, bent on a peaceable but unexplained errand, arrived from
distant regions and departed for an unknown goal, after delaying
just long enough to teach social organization and impart a higher
civilization to the tribes encountered on their passage.

These preserved the memory of the title of the leader, in their
different languages and he became the culture-hero of their tribe.
The fact that, in each case, these sages taught the ignorant tribes
the division of time and instituted the calendar, proves that they
were skilled in astronomy.

From a sentence uttered by Montezuma to the native astrono
mers whom he termed "the Sons of the Night," we learn that it
was their custom " to climb mountains " so as " to study the stars."
When one considers the full import of the problems which had to
be faced by these ancient sages, who earnestly endeavored to ac
count for the great changes which had taken place in the heavens,
within the memory of man, it seems natural to suppose that many
an expedition was undertaken for the purpose of acquiring further
astronomical knowledge, of finding, perhaps, the immovable star
which had been revered in past ages by the ancestors of the native
race.

The cult of Polaris may well have made such expeditions assume
the aspect of an imperative religious duty and sacred pilgrimage.
As all expeditions across Mexico and Central America would nec
essarily l)e limited by the oceans and be fruitless as far as Polaris
was concerned, it is obvious that the line of exploration which
would be ultimately adopted, would run from south to north and
vice wi'sa. A small band of enthusiasts, setting forth under the

479

44 KKY-NOTK OF ANCIKNT

leadership of some of the most advanced thinkers of the time,
would undoubtedly have been prepared to devote their entire lives
to the object in view. As long as a single member of such an ex
pedition existed, he would be a powerful and active agent in
spreading the fundamental set of ideas derived from the observa
tion of Polaris. In lapse of time, by transmission, its influence
might travel to a region too remote perhaps for direct contact to
have taken place.

If I have indulged in the foregoing line of conjecture and sur
mise, it is because it is my purpose also to demonstrate, by abso
lute proof, that the dominion of the above set of ideas extended
over Yucatan, Honduras, Guatemala and even reached Peru, where
its influence is distinctly visible.

It also extended far to the north in prehistoric times, for certain
carved shell-gorgets which have been found in prehistoric graves
in Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee exhibit emblems which have
definite meanings in the Maya language, spoken in Yucatan.

In order to maintain this assertion I must make a slight di
gression from the main subject and revert to the myth already
cited, recording the casting down from heaven of Tezcatlipoca who
arose and ascended again in the form of an ocelot. There are
interesting native pictures of this combat and the fall of the ocelot
in the Vatican Codex n, p. 34, the Fejervary Codex, p. 56, and
others equally important, representing the fall or descent of an
eagle from the sky, to which I shall revert.

It is moreover recorded by Mendieta (p. 82) that Tezcatlipoca
likewise descended or let himself down from the sk}7 by a spider's
thread, and in the Bodleian MS. (p. 12) there are two curious pict
ures one of an ocelot and a cobweb, the other of an ocelot, de
scending head foremost from stars. The same incident is also
pictured in the Vienna Codex (p. 9) where the ocelot, attached by
the tail, is connected by a cord with star-emblems.

There are two facts of special interest in regard to the above
descent of Tezcatlipoca by a spider's thread. The iirst is that the
title Tzontemoc = " he who descends head foremost" is recorded
in the Codex Fuenleal immediately after the name Mictlantecuhtli.
The second is that the spider is figured on the manta of Mictlante
cuhtli in the B. N. MS. and is sculptured in the centre, above his
forehead, in his sculptured image, identified as such by Seiior San
chez (Anales del Museo Nacional in, p. 299) and reproduced here
480

AMERICAN riVII.I/ATlON:

(fig. 19). It represents '; tlie lord of the North or Underworld "
descending, head foremost, with a tecpatl or Iftnt kntfe issuing from
his mouth and with outspread limbs, the outlines of which are al
most lost under the multitude of symbols which are grouped around
him. These symbols are carefully analyzed in my commentary
on the B. N. MS. in which I also describe other known carved
representations of the same conception and point out analogous
pictures in the Maya Codices. The position of the limbs of the
descending figure is best understood by a glance at fig. 20, n, from

FIG. 19.

the Dresden Codex. It represents a bar with cross symbols from
which a human body is descending. The feet rest on dual sym
bols, about which more could be written than the scope of the
present paper allows. A tecpatl or flint knife, attached to the body
by a double bow with ends, may be seen between the dual symbols,
and its presence is of utmost importance since it proves that the
Mayas also associated the flint with the same figure. Instead of a
head the body exhibits a sort of equidistant cross with four circles.
Strange to say, the only analogous cross-figures I have been able
p. M. PAPERS i 31 481

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

to lincl in nil the Codices tire those reproduced in fig. 20, r, nr,
and iv. The latter exhibits a curious, conventionalized flower
growing on the top of a pyramid. Its stem and leaves are painted
brown and are spotted, resembling the skin of an ocelot. As there
is a Mexican flower, the Tigridia, of which the native name was
ocelo-xochitl, it may be that it is this which is thus represented.
Fig. 20, in, from the B. N. MS., figures as a sacred cake, along
side of the S-shaped xonecuilli breads which were made in honor
of Ursa Minor at a certain feast. Finally, fig. 20, i, represents
a certain kind of ceremonial staff which is inserted between the
two peaks of a mountain — a favorite method employed by the
native scribes, to convey the idea that the object figured was in
the exact centre. This kind of staff occurs frequently in cer
tain Codices, sometimes being carried by a high priest. It inva
riably exhibits a flower-like figure with five circles and is surmounted

by a tecpatl or flint knife. Without pausing to discuss the sub
ject fully I merely point out here that, collectively, these symbols
explain each other and convey the idea of the Centre and the Four
Quarters evidently associated with the tecpatl, the symbol of the
north, and the ocelot and xonecuilli = Ursa Minor. It is particu
larly interesting to note that the outspread human body is made to
serve as a sort of cross-symbol. A careful study of the conven
tional representation of the face of " the lord of the North, " in fig.
19, gives the impression that it was also used to convey the idea of
duality, or the union of two in one. The upper half of the face
exhibits a numeral on cither cheek under the eyes, seeming to con
vey the idea of dualities. The two circular ear ornaments, united
by a band above the head, and the two nostrils united in one nose,
seem to convey the idea of the union of the dualities, whilst the
482

AMKUK'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 47

lower half of the fuce, which is rendered strikingly different to the
upper, by being in higher relief and marked with perpendicular
lines, exhibits a mouth from which a flint knife, with symbolical
eye and fangs carved on it, is hanging like a tongue. I have al
ready shown that the flint knife was regarded as the sacred pro
ducer of the "vital spark." I may add here that I have also
found, in the Codices, tecpatl-symbols on which the curved sym
bol of air or breath was figured. To my idea the sculptured face
is meant to symbolize the dual creator, the dispenser of the spark
and breath of life, whilst the human skull on his back betokens
that he is also the giver of death. Though unable to enter fully
into the subject here, I would nevertheless state that I can produce
further data to prove that the human face was frequently employed
for a symbolical purpose by the native American races who were
evidently entirely under the dominion of the idea of duality, of
the Above and Below and the life-producing union of both.

The question why the spider, named k> tocatl" in Nahuatl, should
have been adopted as the chief symbol of Mictlantecuhtli, occupied
me much until I found the clue to its significance in the Maya
language. In this the word for North is Ama/t and the name
for "the spider whose bite is mortal," is Am. This striking fact
may be interpreted as a positive proof that the spider-symbol, em
ployed by the Mexicans, must have originated in Yucatan, from
the mere homonymy of two Maya words.

On the other hand shell-gorgets exhibiting the efligy of a spider,
and obviously intended to be worn with its head turned down
wards, have not only been found in Illinois but also in Tennessee
and Missouri. On the gorgets from the latter States a cross is
carved on the body of the spider (fig. 22, a). As certain spiders
exhibit cross-markings, it is, of course, possible that it was
chosen as a cross-symbol for this reason only, in some localities,
just as the butterfly was evidently adopted in Mexico, as an
apt image of the Centre and the Four Quarters on account of its
shape and its possession of four wings. The conventionalized
figure of a butterfly, with a star on its body and four balls, painted
with the colors of the quarters, was a sacred symbol which is mi
nutely described by Sahagun and is figured on a manta in the B. N.
MS. A glance at its reproduction (fig. 21, no. 13) shows how the
form of the insect has been conventionalized so as to resemble the
ollin (no. 12) and other Mexican cross-symbols (nos. 2, 4, 11, 14

483

•18

K K V - N o T K OK A N < ' I K N T

etc.). The eye or star in its centre, like that in the ollin , and circle
(no. 4), signify Polaris ; the conventionalized head and antennre are
obviously made to convey the idea of " two in one," of the Above
and Below united in the Centre.

1 venture to suggest that the dragon-fly was employed as a cross-
symbol in an analogous manner, on the Algonquin garment pre
served at the Riksmuseum, Stockholm, and described by Dr.
Hjalmar Stolpe in his admirable study on American art(Ameri-
kansk Ornamentik, Stockholm, 1S90, p. 30). As I shall revert to
it later on, I now draw special attention to the circumstance that
instead of the cross, on a spider-gorget from Tennessee, there is

a round hole which, when the shell-disc is held aloft, lets a ray of
light shine through and furnishes an apt presentation of a star.
This and the cross furnish analogies to the Mexican and Maya
symbols of Polaris which are too obvious to need to be emphasized.
Nor do these gorgets alone furnish an undeniable indication that
an identical symbolism extended from Yucatan to Illinois. Other
gorgets, also figured in Mr. Win. IT. Holmes' monograph " Art in
Shell," several of which are in the Peabody Museum, from the stone
graves in Tennessee, exhibit variously carved representations of a
serpent. In all specimens the identical idea is carried out: the
eye of the serpent forms the centre of the design on the disc and
484

AAII.KK AN < IVII.I/.ATIOV

four circles on the body of the reptile, or four solid bars, interrupt
ing a hollow line encircling the central motif, emphasized a division
of the disc into four equal parts. The idea of the Serpent in repose,
the Centre and the Four Quarters is thoroughly carried out and the
true meaning of the design is only appreciated by the light of the
Maya and Mexican symbolism which has already been so fully
discussed.

The third Tennessee gorget reproduced here (fig. 22, c), from
Mr. Holmes' work, exhibits a combination of numerals which is
particularly interesting if confronted with the sacred numbers of
the Mexicans and Mayas. From a central ciicle three curved lines
issue in a fashion resembling those on fig. 21, no. '2, but the fact
that the circular baud exhibits seven double circles and the outer
edge is divided into thirteen parts, is of special moment. Still
another design, on a shell-gorget from Tennessee, not only exhibits

the peculiarity, pointed out by Mr. Holmes, of a square with loops,
resembling certain figures in Mexican Codices, but also other sig
nificant details which I shall point out (fig. 22, It). The cross in
the centre occupies the centre of a star with eight rays and the
four birds' heads at the sides of the square illustrate rotation from
right to left. 1 am inclined to view in this gorget an emblem of
Polaris with Cassiopeia in rotation around it, figured as a bird, but
whether this is the case or not it must be conceded that it is indeed
remarkable to find a set of symbols, consisting of the spider, the
cross, the serpent and the bird, carved on prehistoric gorgets found
in the United States whilst the deep meaning of these identical
symbols is furnished by Maya and Mexican records. I venture to
remark here that no more expressive and appropriate ornament

4S5

50 KKY-NOTK OF ANC1KNT

than these shell-gorgets could have been designed, or worn by the
ancient Maya, or Mexican priests, prophets and leaders who, in a
remote past, had guided themselves by the light of Polaris and
instituted its cult as the basis of their native religion.

On realizing the above-mentioned identity of symbolism, it is
impossible not to conclude that the prehistoric race which inhab
ited certain parts of the United States was under the dominion of
the same ideas as were the Mexicans and Mayas. The indications
point, in fact, to the probability that the origin of the employment
of the spider-symbol originated in Yucatan, and if this be admitted
then there is no reason to deny the possibility that the serpent-sym
bol came from there also, since the Maya language suggests an
affinity between the serpent, can, and the sky =. caan, and the
numeral 4 — can. I refrain, for the present, from expressing any
final conclusion on this subject, which will doubtless afford ample
food for reflection and argument to all interested in the important
problem as to where the cradle of ancient American civilization
was situated. But these symbolic gorgets go far to-
«^- ' i wards substantiating Professor Putnam's oft-expressed
.j conclusions that the ancient peoples of the central and
southern portions of the United States were, to a cer
tain extent, offshoots of the ancient Mexicans.
-I Before abandoning the subject of native symbolism

* and star-emblems I should like to present, as a curiosity,

FIG. 23. with an appeal to specialists to enlighten me as to the
astronomical knowledge of the P^skimos, an Eskimo drawing from
Professor Wilson's instructive and useful monograph. It is said to
represent a " flock of birds," but so closely resembles Cassiopeia
and Polaris that I am tempted to view it as an indication that the
Eskimos may also have associated the idea of a celestial bird, or
birds, wheeling around a central point, with the constellation and
the pole-star (fig. 23) . Having once ventured ±o far afield, I cannot
refrain from presenting here an interesting set of aboriginal star-
symbols, reproduced from Professor Wilson's comprehensive work
(fig. 24), each composed of a cross combined, with a single excep
tion, with a circle. I draw attention to the striking resemblance of
some of these signs to those painted on the finely decorated pottery
found on the hacienda of Don Jose Luna, in Nicaragua, and de
scribed by J. F. Brandsford, M.D. (Archaeological Researches in
Nicaragua, Smithsonian Inst., 1881, p. 30, B), and suggest that, in
48 6

FVipers.

1. Shell tforget, Missouri. 2, 5-14. Pottery vessels, Arkansas. .'5,4, 15-17, 10-28. Pottery
vessels, Missouri. 18. Pottery vessel, Kentucky. (',. National Museum. :i 10, 17, 21, -24,
25. St. Louis Academy. All others Peabody Museum.

\VilIoiu?hl>y, " Pottery from the Mississippi Valley."

Journal of American Folk-lore, Januarv — March, lsi»7.

oz KEY-NOTE <»E ANCIENT

both localities, the symbol ma,y be a rudimentary swastika, and
represent Polaris and circumpolar rotation.

In conclusion I refer the reader to Mr. C. C. Willoughby's val-
uable and most interesting k' Analysis of the decorations upon
pottery from the Mississippi Valley " (Journal Amer. Folk-lore,
vol. x, 1807), in which he figures the remarkable specimens pre
served in the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, the designs on which,
as he states, " are mostly of symbolic origin and have been in use
among various tribes within the' historic period from the Great
Lakes to Mexico." With the kind permission of the editor of the
Journal, I reproduce some of Mr. Willoughby's illustrations on
Plate in.

Returning to consider the probable result of the gradual diffu
sion of star- cult owing to natural causes and of the consequent
divergence from the idea of the Centre, which had so deeply in
fluenced the minds of primitive men during many centuries, with

CROSSES AND CIRCLES REPRESENTING STAR SYMBOLS, ARIZONA.

FIG. -24.

earnest, and extended astronomical observation, keeping pace with
the development of the idea of the Above and Below, it is obvious
that the utmost attention would be next given to the conspicuous
star groups and planets which are visible at certain times and then
seem to have departed or descended into the under world. Any
one wrho has read the interesting communications by Herr Richard
Andree (Globns. bd. LXIV, nr. 22), On the relation of the Pleia
des to the beginning of the year amongst primitive people, followed
by a note bv Herr Karl von den Steinen on the same subject, will
realize that widely- separated tribes of men, by dint of simple ob
servation, knew the exact length of the periodical appearance and
disappearance of this star group and regulated their year accord
ingly. Herr Andree cites, for instance, that u in the Society islands,
the year was divided into two portions, the first of which was
named Matari-i-inia = the Pleiades above. It began and lasted
488

AMKIJK AN riVIUZATIONS. 53

duriug the time when these constellations were visible close to the
horizon after sunset. The second period, named Matarii-i-raro =
the Pleiades below, began and lasted for the time during which the
star-group was invisible after sunset" (W. Ellis, Polynesian Re
searches, vol. ir, p. 419, London 1821)). That the ancient Mexi
cans had likewise observed the Pleiades and been deeply impressed
by them is proven by the well-known fact that the ceremony of the
kindling of the sacred lire, which betokened the commencement
of a, new cycle, was performed "when the Pleiades attained the
zenith at midnight precisely." In my complete monograph in the
ancient Mexican calendar-system it will be my endeavor to present
all the data I have collected concerning the degree of elementary
astronomical knowledge attained by the native astronomers. I
shall, therefore, content myself with pointing out here that besides
the foregoing testimony about the Pleiades, the native name for
which was the mice = the many, or the tiauquiztli = the market
place, there are records proving that the cult of the planet Venus
was a firmly established feature of the native religion at the time
of the Conquest. Sahagun records that the Nahuatl names for this
planet were citlalpul or hueycitlallin both signifying " the great
star." ki In the great temple of Mexico an edifice named ilhuicat-
itlan [literally, the land of the sky] consisted of a great, high
column, on which the morning star was painted. . . . Captives
were sacrificed in front of this column annually, at the period when
the star re-appeared" (op. cit. appendix to book n).

With regard to the connection of the Pleiades with the begin
ning of the Mexican cycle, it is interesting to note Herr Andree's
statements that the most intimate connection of the star-group with
the thoughts of primitive people, would naturally take place in
such localities where its periodical movements coincided with the
changes of season, wind and weather which affected agriculture.
A survey of the data presented by Herr Andree shows that the
cult of the Pleiades attained its greatest development amongst
tribes inhabiting a southerly latitude. It was in South America,
indeed, that the Peruvians, alongside of their highly developed sun-
cult, rendered homage and offered sacrifices to the Pleiades. In
Mexico, the cult of the Pleiades appears as intimately associated
with that of the sun and to have assumed importance only in his
torical and comparatively recent times, probably when the periodic
ity of the sun's movements had been taught or recognized and the

489

54 KKY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

sign ollhi) which is an exact presentation of the annual course of
the sun, had been invented and adopted as a symbol. I have al
ready pointed out that this sign occurs on the calendar-stone, for
instance, which has a human face in its centre, bearing two num
erals on the forehead and obviously symbolizing the union of two
in one. In other instances the centre displays the eye, or star sym
bol and conveys the suggestion that the u four movements" of the
circumpolar constellations were thereby symbolized. It may be that,
in ancient Mexico, the two symbols, 'respectively referring to the
movements of the sun and of the circumpolar star-groups, were em
blematic of the two different cults or religions which existed along
side of each other. The first, the cult of the Above, of the Blue Sky,
was directed towards the sun and the planets and stars intimately
associated with sunrise and sunset, amongst them the Pleiades. The
cult of the Below, of the Nocturnal Heaven, was directed towards
the moon, Polaris and the circumpolar constellations — also to the
stars and planets during the period of their disappearance and
possibly in the same way to the enigmatical u Black Sun," figured in
the B. N. MS. which may have been the sun during its nightly stay
in the House of the Underworld, whose door was in the west. In
order to obtain an idea of the immense proportions ultimately
assumed by these two diverging cults and the enormous influence
they exerted upon the entire native civilization, it will be necessary
to examine the form of the social organization in Montezmna's
time.

In order to comprehend this, however, it is first necessary to
study carefully the myths relating to its origin. Torquemada (lib.
vi, chap. 41) cites the authority of Friar Andreas de Olmos for
the following native account of the creation of man, which was
differently recounted to him in each province. He states that the
majority of the natives, however, agreed that " there was in heaven
a god named k Shining Star ' (Citlal-Tonac) and a goddess named
' She of the starry skirt' (Citlal-Cue), who gave birth to a flint
knife (Tecpatl). Their other children, startled at this, cast the
flint down from the sky. It fell to earth at the place named ' Seven
caves' and 'produced 1,600 gods and goddesses,' " a figure of speech
which evidently expressed the idea that, in coming in forcible con
tact with the soil the flint gave forth sparks innumerable which
conveyed vitality to numberless beings. It is evidently the same
idea of u life sparks " being called into existence by the union of
490

AMERICAN CIVILIZATION:

heaven and earth which underlies the Texcocan version of the cre
ation of man recorded as follows by Torquemada (op. ct loc. e/Y.).
u The sun .... shot an arrow towards the land of Acohna near
the boundary of Texcoco. This made a hole in the ground whence
issued the first man . . . . '

The illustrated version of the above myths, given in the Vatican
Codex i, designates the celestial progenitor of human life as Quet-
zalcoatl, also named Tonaca-Tecuhtli = the lord of our subsist
ence, Chicome-xochitl
i= " Seven roses or
flowers " and Citlalla-
Tonalla:="The Milky
Way," literally, The
shining stars. The
dual divinity is figured
(fig. 25, no. 4) as two
persons with the shaft
of an arrowr over each
of their heads and with
FIG- 25' the symbol Tecpatl =

flint, between them as the issue of their union. In the Borgian
Codex (fig. 25, no. 1), a barbed arrowpoint, instead of the Tec
patl, figures between the celestial parents. Their union is symbol
ized by a covering, the shape of which, in further representations
(fig. 25, nos. 3 and 5) in the same MS., offers resemblance to the
tan-shaped windows which are such a common feature in Maya and
also in Pueblo architecture (fig. 25, no. '2b) . The preceding data,
which could be amplified, seem to show that the natives associa
ted the tau-shape not merely with the idea of the Male and Female
principles, but also with the Above and the Below, or Heaven (air
and water) and Earth (earth and fire). 1 shall have occasion, fur
ther on, to refer again to the symbolism of the native tan.

The above illustrations, however, definitely prove that the flint
knife and the arrow (with a flint point, presumably), were indis
criminately designated as the medium by means of which the spark
of life was created and imparted to earth-born beings.

It will be proved further that, at the period of the Conquest, the
arrow was revered as an image of life-producing force in Yucatan
and Mexico. The flint knife cased in wrappings was called "• the
son " of Cihuacoatl, the earth-mother, and was regarded as her

491

•56 KF.Y-NOTi: <>F AXCIKNT

special symbol. It is significant, therefore, to find th:it it was
the emblem of ollice of one of the two high priests, who alone
employed it, as a sacrificial knife, in performing his awful duty of
immolating human victims.

The fact that the cane-shaft of an arrow figures above the head
of the celestial couple in the Vatican Codex is particularly inter
esting because the name Ome-Acatl = Two-Cane, is given as the
name of a divinity by Sahagun (book r, chap. 15) and that the
ceremony of kindling the New Fire, at the commencement of a
cycle of years was also associated with the calendar sign Ome-
Acatl (Sahagun, book vn, chap. 10).

At a certain festival images of Omacatl were manufactured and
carried by the devout to their houses in order to receive from them
u blessings and multiplication of possessions " (Sahagun, book n,
chap. 19).

I draAv attention to the fact that life is supposed to have pro
ceeded from the union of stellar divinities, that the Tecpatl and
flint are the well-known symbols for the North and Fire and that the
Vatican commentator identifies the celestial parent as " Seven-
Flowers." What is more, Duran (vol. i, pp. 8 and 0) relates that
the native race was organized into seven separate tribes and that
these u claimed to have come out of ' seven caves ' (Chicom-oztoc)
which were situated in Teo-Culhuacan or Aztlau ' a land of which
all men know that it is in the North.' " Now Teo-Culhuacan is
composed of the word Teotl, which designated the stars, the sun,
the gods and, by extension, something divine or celestial. Culhua
(cf. Coloa) means something bent over or recurved, or the action
of describing a circle by moving around something, and ran means
"the place of" in Nahuatl. This locality is represented in the
picture-writings by a strange and impossible mountain witli a re
curved summit (fig. 2G, no. 1 ). Aztlan literally means " the land
of whiteness, brightness, light." In Duran's Atlas the seven caves
are represented as containing men and women — the progenitors of
the seven tribes. The order in which these arc described, in the
Mexican myth, as having issued from the caves, is instructive and
sheds light upon the provenance and purpose of the tradition. It
represents the Mexicans as the superior predestined race who re
mained in their cave the u longest, by divine command," their
" god having promised them this land." The tradition relates that
six tribes reached and settled down in the central plateau of Mex-
492

AMKRH AN < I \ 1 LI/ ATX >NS. 57

ico, 302 years before the Aztecs arrived, under the leadership of
Huitzilopochtli an oracular divinity, whose commandments were
transmitted to the people by four priests (Duran, chap. n).

In my opinion it is impossible to study the above and supple
mentary data without realizing that the native race assigned its
origin to a dual star-divinity, associated with the Tecpatl, the sym
bol for the North and for Fire. The peculiarity that the divinity
is designated as Seven-flowers, and that there were seven tribes,
indicates that the native idea was that each tribe came from one of
the seven stars in Ursa Major or Minor. The Aztecs seem to have
claimed for themselves the descent from the superior star, the cen
tral one, and to have thus justified or supported their ultimate es
tablishment of a central government which ruled over the other six
tribes.

The assumption that the native race claimed descent from the
Ursa Major or Minor constellation is further supported by the fact

that the shape of the mythical recurved mountain and the name
Aztlan — land of light or brightness are simultaneously explained,
as well as the number of caves and tribes. It does not seem to be
a mere coincidence that in two totally different Codices (the Selden
MS. p. 7, Kingsborough, vol. 1, and the B. X. MS., p. 70) a
, sacred dance is represented as executed by seven individuals who
move around a central seated personage. In the latter MS. the
seated figure wears a head-dress surmounted by flint knives and
his face is painted red the color assigned to the North. Moreover
the dance is taking place before an image of Mictlau-Tecuhtli, the
lord of the North, whose raiment is strewn with cross-symbols.
Referring to other native dances we find that the most sacred of
all dances was performed at the festival of the god of fire by
priests only, who, smeared with black paint to typify darkness and

498

58 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

night, carried two torches in each hand and first sat, then slowly
moved, in a circle, around the " divine brazier," and finally cast
their torches into it (I)uran n, p. 174). This, probably the most
ancient of sacred dances, must have been extremely impressive
and significative to those who witnessed it, at night-time, from the
base of the pyramid and heard the distant solemn chant, of the
dancers. To watchers from afar, the fire and the lighted torches
revolving around must have seemed like a great central star with
other stars wheeling about it.

Further on, it will be shown that the earliest form under which
the Deity was revered was that of fire and the foregoing descrip
tion fully explains why it was first chosen as the most fitting im
age of the central immovable star. It has already been shown
that, in the popular game of tk the flyers," a high pole surmounted
by one man s'erved as the pivot for the circumvolation of the four
performers, who "acted" the "flight of time." The idea of an
extended rule, proceeding from a central dual force, was, however,
carried out on a grand scale in the most solemn of all public dances
named the Mitotiliztli. Duran (n, p. 85) states that as many a^
" 8,600 persons danced in a wheel in the courtyard of the Great
Temple, which had four doorways, facing the cardinal points and
opening out on to the four principal high roads leading to the cap
ital. The doorways were respectively named after the four prin
cipal gods and were spoken of as ' the doorway of such and such
a god.' "

Clavigero, to whose work (Uistoria, ed. Mora, Mexico, 1844, p.
234) I refer the reader for further details, describes the dances at
the time of the Conquest as having been most beautiful, and relates
that the natives were exercised in these, from their childhood, by
the priests. This authority also relates that the Mitotiliztli was
performed by hundreds of dancers at certain' solemn festivals, in
the great central square of the city or in the courtyard of the tem
ple, and gives the following description :

The centre of the space was occupied by two individuals (des
ignated elsewhere as high priests) who beat measure on sacred
drums of two kinds. One, the large huehuetl, emitted an ex
tremely loud, deep tone, which could be heard for miles and was
usually employed in the temples as a means of summoning to wor
ship, etc. The second, the teponaztle, was a small portable wooden
drum which was usually worn suspended from the neck by the
494

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 59

leader in warfare and emitted the shrill piercing note he employed
as a signal. The chieftains (each of which personified a, god)
surrounded the two musicians, forming several concentric circles,
close to each other. At a certain distance from the outer one of
these, the persons of an inferior class were placed in circles and
these were separated by another interval of space, from the outer
most circles, composed of young men and boys. The illustration
given by Clavigero records the order and disposition of this sacred
dance, which represented a kind of wheel, the centre of which was
occupied by the instruments and their players. The spokes of the
wheel were as many as there were chieftains in the innermost circle.
All moved in a circle while dancing and strictly adhered to their
respective positions. Those who were nearest the centre, the chief
tains and elders, moved slowly, with gravity, having a smaller cir
cle to perform. The dancers forming the outer circles were,
however, forced to move with extreme rapidity, so as to preserve
the straight line radiating from the centre and headed by the chief
tains. The measure of the dance and of the chorus chanted by
the participants was beaten by the drums and the musicians asserted
their absolute control of the great moving wheel of human beings,
by alternately quickening or slackening the measure. The perfect
harmony of the dance, which successive sets of dancers kept go
ing for eight or more hours, was only disturbed occasionally by cer
tain individuals who pushed their way through the lines of dancers
and amused these by indulging in all sorts of buffoonery. No
one, on reading the above description of the most ancient and
sacred of native dances can fail to recognize that it was an actual
representation of axial rotation and that no more effective method
of rendering the apparent differences in the degrees of velocity in
the movements of the circumpolar and equatorial stars, could pos
sibly have been devised. The fact that this dance was a most
solemn and sacred rite, whose performance was obligatory to the
entire population, indicates that it constituted an act of general
obedience and homage and a public acknowledgment of the abso
lute dominion of a central dual, ruling power.

It is particularly interesting that, in this dance, the latter is rep
resented by two individuals who respectively employ the sacred drum
of the priesthood, and that used by war chieftains only (the one
instrument emitting a low and the other a high tone) ; for the

4!»f>

60 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

culture hero of the Tzendals, Votan, who, with the aid of his fol
lowers, taught this tribe the civil laws of government and the relig
ious ceremonials, was entitled k' the Master of the sacred Drum."
(See Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 214.)

Reverting to the organization of the native race into seven tribes
and the wandering of the seventh and principal division, under the
leadership of Huitzilopochtli : according to Tezozomoc (Cronica,
p. 23), Huitzilopochtli was accompanied by " a woman who was
called his sister and was carried by four men. She was a powerful
sorceress, possessed the power of assuming the shape of an eagle,
had made herself greatly feared and caused herself to be adored
as a goddess." Indignant at her arrogance the priests counselled
a course which was adopted by the Mexicans. The woman and
her family were left behind at Malinalco where they settled and
populated a town, whilst the other portion of the tribe, under
strictly masculine rule, advanced towards Tula where they estab
lished themselves. "This was the second division which had taken
place, amongst the Mexicans or Aztecs .... and when
they reached Tula they found their number greatly diminished."
This same incident is related with greater detail by Torquemada
(vol. i, chap, n) from which we learn what a great animosity was
felt against the woman. On one occasion, which I shall not pause
to describe, two war chiefs menaced her. The "talk" she gave
them in return is so remarkable that it deserves to be quoted in
full ; for it affords a deep insight into the native mode of expres
sion, teaches us the titles of the woman and shows that her posi
tion was undoubtedly one of powerful authority.

" I nm Quilaztli, your sister and of your tribe .... you
know this and yet you think that the dispute or difference you
have with me is like an ordinary one, such as you might wage with
any ordinary base woman, who possessed little spirit or courage.
If you indulge in this thought you are deceiving yourselves, for I
run valiant and manly and my titles will oblige you to acknowledge
this. For besides the ordinary name of Quilaztli, by which you
know me, I also possess four titles, by which I know myself:
the first of these is Cihuacoatl = the Woman-serpent (or twin) ;
the second is Quauh-Cihuatl — the Eagle-woman; the third is
Yao-Cihuatl = the Woman-warrior and the fourth is Tzitzimi-
Cilmritl, the Woman of the Underworld. From the properties
490

AMKRICAN CIVILIZATIONS. Gl

or qualities conveyed by these titles you can appreciate who I am ;
what power I yield and what harm I can do you and if you want
to test the truth of this, here is my challenge!"

"The two brave captains, undaunted by the arrogant words by
which she attempted to terrify them, responded: ' If you are as
valiant as you describe yourself to be, we are not less so ; but
you are a woman and it is not meet that it should be said of us
that we took up arms against women ;' and without speaking fur
ther they left her, much affronted that a woman should challenge
and defy them. And they kept silence about this occurrence so
that their people should not know of it." Seiior Alfredo Chavero
(appendix, p. 125, to Duran's Historia. Mexico, 1*^0), commenting
upon this passage, says: " It is impossible to doubt that this tra
dition refers to an important event in the history of the Aztec-
tribe .... I think it contains the record of a religious
struggle."

The full significance of the narrative will become clear, I think,
when the following points are dwelt upon. One thing is certain :
here is a historical personage, a woman, who was termed th? m'ster
of Iluitzilopochtli, who evidently exerted a high authority and whose
titles were actually the names of the highest female divinity. Sa-
hagim (book vi, chap. 37) states thatQuilaztli. a goddess, the same
as Cihnacoatl, was the mother of all and was also named Tonant-
zin = " our mother." What is more significant still is that, in all
historical records antedating the Conquest, a man bearing the fem
inine title of Cihuacoatl — serpent woman, is distinctly and re
peatedly mentioned as the coadjutor of the Mexican ruler. Mr.
Ad. Bandelier, in his careful study " On the social organization and
mode of government of the Ancient Mexicans" (Twelfth Annual
Report of the Peabody Museum of Am. Arch, and Ethn., Cam
bridge, 1879) to which I refer the reader, discusses the relative
positions of Montezuma and the Cihuacoatl and states: "there is
no doubt about their equality of rank though their duties were
somewhat different" (p. 665). This equality is illustrated by the
records that both rulers shared the same privileges regarding dress.
Thus they alone wore sandals and the Cihuacoatl is termed " the
second or double of the king, his coadjutor" (Duran, chap. xxxn.
p. 255 and Tezozomoc, chap. XL, p. 66). The latter author,
however, gives the full "sacred title" as Tlil-1'otonqui Cihua
coatl, literally, " the black-powdered woman-serpent " and we thus
p. M. PAPERS i 32 4(J7

62 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

learn that, whilst Montezmna's garments were habitually blue like
Huitzilopochtli, his coadjutor, like Tezcatlipoca, was associated
with black. It is well known that some of the Mexican priests
always smeared their bodies with black, which was therefore their
special mark.

To my idea the foregoing data, with circumstantial evidence too
diffuse to be conveniently produced, clearly indicate that at one
time, in the early history of the Aztec race, it had been governed
jointly by a male and a female ruler on a footing of perfect equality,
the one being the living representative of the Above or masculine
elements and the other personifying the Below or feminine elements.
The fact that Cihuacoatl is named " the sister " of Huitzilopochtli
shows that the female ruler was not necessarily his wife, although
she was his coadjutor in her own right. Both rulers were respect
ively served by four persons presumably of their respective sex.
Besides these Duran (chap. 3) records that "there were also other
seven teotls — lords, who were much reverenced on account of the
seven caves out of which the seven tribes had come."

We thus perceive that at one time the chief authority was vested
in a man and a woman, his sister, who enjoyed a perfect equality.
Four persons administered the government of each ruler and each
of the seven tribes had "its honoured representative." For how long
this organization had existed it is impossible to tell. Dissension
arose and division supervened, but to the time of the Conquest the
identical form of government was in force with the remarkable
difference that the title and office of the Cihuacoatl, originally held
by a woman, were held by a man, whom I do not hesitate to identify
as one of the two " supreme pontiffs," whose emblem of office was
the Hint knife, the offspring of Cihuacoatl, the earth-mother.

Historical evidence shows that this alteration had not been made
without bloodshed and renewed difficulties. Thus it is related
that, long after the Mexicans had separated from the sister of
Huitzilopochtli and her adherents, they were induced to "ask the
daughter of the ruler of Culhuacan to become the Queen of the
Mexicans and mother of their god. She conformed with their
request but was subsequently killed by her subjects, who flayed
her body and dressed a youth in her skin [a figure of native
speech which symbolized his assumption of her office]. Under
this form she was revered as a goddess, was named our grandmother
and ' the mother of the god,' etc." These and the following de-
498

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 63

tails, taken from well-known authentic native sources, are attract
ively rendered in the " Xewe Welt mul Amerikanische Historien"
(Johaim Ludwig Gottfriedt. Frankfurt-a.-M., 1613, pp. 54 and 55).

Again, after the Mexicans had been settled at Tenochtitlan for
some time, they desired to make an alliance with the King of Cul-
huacau and therefore "chose to nominate, as their ruler, Acam-
apichtli, who was the son of a Mexican chieftain by a daughter of
the Culhuacan ruler " and evidently lived with the latter. For it
is related that, on giving his consent, the king of Culhuacan stated
that if only a ivoman (of his family) had been nominated he would
have refused (to trust her to the Mexicans). The farewell words
he addressed to Acamapichtli are worthy of quotation : " Go my
son, serve thy god, be his representative, llule the creatures of
the god by whom we live ; the god of day, of the night and of the
winds. Go and be the lord of the water and land owned by the
Mexicans."

As it is subsequently stated that Acamapichtli and 7/Y.s ^>/een were
received at Tenochtitlan with great honors, it would seem as though
the Mexicans who, from some deeply-rooted religious idea, con
sidered it essential to have a female ruler of the line of the king
of Culhuacan, obtained their desire only by accepting a male mem
ber of her family as a protection and safeguard for her sacred
person. It may be that for the reasons of safety and preservation
the female ruler, who was the living representative of the Cihua-
coatl, gradually retired into absolute seclusion whilst a man of her
kin assumed, in public, her title and prerogatives.

Unless it is assumed that this wras the case, it seems impossible
to explain why Acamapichtli is designated in the Codex Mendoza
(Kingsborough, vol. i, pi. 11) as having begun to rule in the year
I Tecpatl or flint (approximately corresponding to A.D. 1364) with
the title of "Woman-serpent" = Cihuacoatl. From this date the title
seems always to have been borne by a man. When human sacri
fices had become a prominent feature of the native cult and it be
came a duty of the Cihuacoatl to perform the bloody rite, it is
obvious that it became impossible for a woman to fill the position.

We obtain, however, glimpses of the shadowy form of an in
visible and venerable female ruler who is at the head of the "House
of Women," watches over the welfare of the women of the tribe
and officiates as a priestess, with her assistants, at births, baptisms
and marriages. In order to account for the obscurity which sur-

499

64 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

rounds her, it should be noticed that the mere fact that the ideas
of darkness and seclusion became indelibly nssociated with the
female sex, would naturally and inevitably cause women to be
housed up, veiled and condemned to comparative inaction and im
mobility. A primitive stage in the growth of the above idea is
shown in the case of the Iluaxtecas, the women of which tribe wore
abundant covering whilst the men, on religious principle, wore
none. A careful study of the conditions surrounding the Cihua-
coatl or high priest shows that he also conformed to the exigencies
of his position when he acted as the representative of the hid
den forces of Nature, of the female principle. He and the entire
priesthood smeared their bodies with black, cultivated long hair,
and wore, during the performance of certain religious ceremonies,
a wide and long garment reaching to the ground. It is noticeable
that the designs on the garments of the priests, in the B. N. MS.,
are invariably executed in red and yellow, the symbolical colors
of the north and west, combined with black the symbol of the
union of both, the Below. In this connection it is noteworthy that
iu Mexican pictography the faces of women are usually painted
yellow — the color of the West = the female region. The asso
ciation of darkness, concealment and secrecy, with the female
principle, is exemplified by the fact that a building in the enclos
ure of the Great Temple of Mexico, named the " house of dark
ness," was dedicated to the earth-mother = Cihuacoatl (Sahagun,
appendix to book n). Other temples of hers are described as
being cave-like, underground, dark, with a single low entrance, the
door of which was sometimes sculptured in the form of the great
open jaws of a serpent. Only priests were allowed to penetrate
into these mysterious chambers where sacred and secret rites were
performed and a sacred fire was also kept burning in an adjoining
chamber. Evidence, which I shall produce further on, establishes
that the high-priest Cihuacoatl dwelt, at times, in a house named
u place of darkness " and annually sacrificed a human victim in
honor of the lord of the underworld, in an edifice called " the navel
of the earth."

The religious cult of one-half of the Mexican hierarchy was
distinctly nocturnal. The chief duties of certain priests were as
tronomical observation and the supervision of the sacred fire, which
was kept perpetually burning on the summit of each temple-crowned
pyramid, in what was termed ''the sacred or divine brazier" of
500

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 6f>

sculptured stone. Two priests jointly watched by night and
day and received and transmitted to the flames the incense offer
ings of the devout. The temple fires were extinguished only at
the expiration of a cycle of fifty- two years and were then rekin
dled by the high priest at midnight precisely, with impressive
solemnity.

Jn ancient Mexico, it should however be observed, although the
logical association of women with the hidden forces of nature, the
underworld and the Below, had exerted a certain influence over
her practical existence, it had not yet given rise to the idea of her
inferiority as compared to man, the associate of the Heaven, the
Above, the visible and active forces of nature. The native sages
did not identify her so intimately with the earth as to deny her the
possession of a soul — the celestial spark. On the other hand it
is curious to note that the Nahuatl word for wife is Cihua-tlan-tli
and for husband is Te-o-quichtli. Is it possible that the particle
tlan in the first and Teo in the second may have contributed to
strengthen the association of the woman with earth = tlalli (tlan =
land of) and the man with Teotl, the sun, something divine and
celestial? In course of time it doubtlessly would have transpired,
in Mexico as elsewhere, that the set of primitive ideas which, dur
ing untold centuries, imposed upon women seclusion, obscurity
and inactivity and thus hindered her development of strength of
body and mind, would have directly induced an inferiority. This
has been subsequently proclaimed, as we know, in many countries,
as a direct proof of her lower nature and of her affinity with the
element earth. The assumed and actual inferiority of woman may
therefore be regarded as the logical, inevitable but artificial result
of primordial classification and association. Suggested by the
same natural phenomena which were visible to all inhabitants of
the same latitudes, these ideas occurred to all people at a certain
stage of their development and exerted a dominating influence
over the subsequent growth of their intelligence. It is but now,
that, unconsciously, mankind is beginning to emerge from the lead
ing strings of its infancy, which became an iron bondage to its
prolonged childhood. In Mexico, at the period of the Conquest,
the absolute equality of the male and female principles was theo
retically maintained. At the same time it is possible to discern
certain agencies at work which were tending to connect the Below,
the female principle, with harm and evil. From time immemorial

501

66 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

it had been the custom of the Chichimecs, who, according to Saha-
gun (book xn, chap. 12, par. 5), inhabited an extremely poor
and barren region of Mexico, to sacrifice the first animal killed in
a hunting expedition and to offer it to " the Sun whom they called
father and to the earth their mother." They severed its head and
raised this as though offering it to the sun. They then tilled the
earth where the blood had been spilt and left the animal which had
been sacrificed, on the spot (Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca
chap, vi and Relaciones p. 335). This passage, establishing the
cultivation of the soil where the blood had been spilt, sheds a
Hood of light on the origin of the offerings of human blood and
the sacrifices of human life, which were such a prominent and hid
eous feature of the Aztec religion.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, instead of the blood
being spilt directly upon the earth, to insure and increase the fruit-
fulness of the soil, a human being was stretched across a conical
stone which became thus the image of the earth-mother, his heart
wras extracted and offered to the sun, the Above, and his blood was
then smeared on the mouth of certain idols representing the Be
low. In the B. N. MS. an interesting illustration and account are
given of an idol of the earth- mother who is figured as standing on
a pedestal adorned with skulls and cross-bones with outstretched
tongue which signified, " that she always had great thirst for human
blood" and " never refused sacrifices offered to her."

Two priests are likewise pictured in the act of offering bowls
containing human blood to the idol and a third, mounted on a lad
der, is pouring the contents of another bowl over its head. It is
obvious how the constant associations of the earth-mother with
sanguinary sacrifices and bloodthirstiness would, in time, give rise
to the idea of a hostile, maleficent power, linked with darkness
and devouring fire, who, under the aspect of the serpent-woman,
waged an eternal warfare on the human race and clamored for
victims and bloody sacrifices. The natural sequence to the above
associations is that in ancient Mexico the powers exerting fatal
1 influence upon the human race are all represented as female, viz. :
the Cihuacoatl or woman-serpent, the Ciuapipiltin and the Tzit-
zime, etc. These and various other personifications of the female
principle are described in detail in my notes and commentary to
the B. N. MS.

After considering the foregoing data it seems impossible not to
502

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 67

conclude that it must have taken centuries of time for the idea of
duality, or of the Above and Below to have taken such a deep hold
upon the native mind and to have produced such a growth of sym
bolism and association in so many ramifications of thought. Let
us endeavor to obtain a further insight into the native mode of
thought by carefully studying some significant details concerning
the social organization of the Mexicans from the time of Acama-
pichtli to that of Montezuma and the influences it had been sub
jected to gradually. This, the first ruler, unquestionably ruled as
the Cihuacoatl, a name which means either Woman-serpent or
Female-twin. This fact in itself testifies to an epoch-making change
in the organization of the Mexican government, in the making
of which a concession was made to a previously existing order of
things, by the retention of the female title by a male ruler.

Having carefully studied the question for many years, I have
long considered it proven that when the Mexicans settled in the
valley of Mexico they came under a series of influences emanat
ing from an ancient and highly cultured centre of civilization sit
uated in the south, which had followed, during untold centuries,
the same lines of primitive thought which have been stated. This
question of contact and influence from an older civilization is so
important and the material I have collected on the subject is so
extensive and complex, that it cannot be adequately treated here.
Further on I shall discuss at length certain historical data throw
ing light on ancient contact and influences. Meanwhile I may as
well state here that, having carefully weighed all testimony, I ac
cept as amply proven and well supported, the testimony of Las
Casas, Torquemada, Mendieta and others, who record that the
Mexican culture-hero Quetzalcoatl was an actual person who had
come to Mexico from Yucatan twice and had finally returned thither,
leaving a small colony of his vassals behind him whose influence
upon the religious and social organization and symbolism of the
tribes, inhabiting the central plateau, can be plainly discerned.
Montezuma himself, in his famous speech to Cortes, which the latter
carefully reported to the Emperor Charles V, states that : "we [the
Mexican rulers] were brought here by a lord, whose vassals all of
our predecessors were, and who returned from here to his native
land. He afterwards came here again, after a long time, during
which many of his followers who had remained, had married native
women of this land, raised large families and founded towns in

503

6<S KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

which they dwelt. He wished to take them away from here with
him, but they did not want to go, nor would the}7 receive or adopt
him as theirruler, and so lie departed. But we have always thought
that his descendants would surely come to subjugate this country
and claim us as their vassals. . . ." (Uistoria de Nueva
Kspana. Ileruan Cortes, ed. Lorenzana, p. 81 ; see also p. 96).
1 do not see how it is possible to construe such plain, unadorned
statements of simple, common-place facts into the assumption that
Montezuma was recounting a mythical account of the disappear
ance of the Light-god from the sky, as upheld by some modern
writers, who interpret the whole episode as a sun-myth or legend.

I have already shown that the meaning of the ocelot-skin and
the spicier, employed as symbols by the Mexicans, is apparent only
when studied by means of the Maya language of Yucatan, the
land whence the culture-hero is said to have come by the foregoing
authorities. I will add here that in the Maya chronicles, it is
stated that, the culture-hero had ruled in Chichen-Itza, the first
part of which name, Chicken* means red. In Mexican records it
is described that he departed by water from the Mexican coast arid
travelled directly east, bound for Tlapallan — a name which means
rad-\i\\\(\. I draw attention to the fact that any one sailing from
the mouth of the Panuco river, for instance, in a straight line to
wards the east, would inevitably land on the coast of Yucatan, not
far from the modern Merida and the ancient ruins of Chichen-Itza.

! shall also produce evidence, further on, to show that the mean
ing of the much-discussed name of the culture-hero's home, Tul-
lan, is also furnished by the Maya language. From more than one
source, we learn, moreover, that there were several Tullans on the
American continent. The conception of Twin-brothers as the per
sonification of the Above and Below had been adopted in Yucatan
and it is to the influence emanating from that source that I attrib
ute the movement made in Mexico, to substitute male twin-rulers
in the place of the man and woman, who had previously and jointly
ruled the ancient Mexicans.

Let us now analyze the Maya title Kukulcan, of which Quet-
zalcoatl is the Mexican equivalent. As already stated, the word
can means serpent and the numeral 4 and is almost hornonymous
with the word for sky or heaven — caan. The image of a serpent,
therefore, direct!}7 suggested and expressed the idea of something
quadruple incorporated in one celestial being and appropriately
504

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 69

symbolized the divine ruler of the four quarters. In the word
Kukulean the noun can is qualified by the prefix kakul. In the com
piled Maya dictionary published by Brasseur de Bourbourg (ap
pendix to de Landa's Relacion) the adjective ku or l\nl. is given as
4 'divine or holy." Kukulcaii may therefore be analyzed as u the
divine serpent or the " Divine Four." When Maya sculptors or
scribes began to represent this symbol of the divinity they must
have searched for some object, easy to depict, the sound of whose
name resembled that of ku orkul. The Maya adjective u feathered"
being knknm, the artists evidently devised the plan of representing,
as an effigy of the divinity, a serpent decorated with feathers and
to this simple attempt at representing the u divine serpent" in
sculpture or pictography is due. in my opinion, the origin of the
"' feathered serpent" effigies found in Yucatan and Mexico, which
have so puzzled archaeologists.

Of Kukulcan, the culture-hero of the Mayas, it is recounted
that he had been one of four brothers who originally ruled at
Chichen-Itza, over four tribes. " These brothers chose no wives but
lived chastely and ruled righteously, until, at a certain time, one died
or departed and two began to act unjustly and were put to death.
The one remaining was Kukulcan. He appeased the strife which
his brothers' acts had aroused, directed the minds of the people to
the arts of peace and caused to be built various edifices. After
he had completed his work at Chichen-Jtza he founded the great
city of Mayapan, destined to be the capital of the confederacy of
the Mayas." (See Brinton, Hero-myths, p. 162.) Friar Diego de
Landa relates that the current opinion amongst the Indians of
Yucatan was that this ruler had gone to Mexico where, after his
return (departure?) he was named Cezalcouatl and revered as one
of their gods (Relacion, ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg, p. 36).
Before analyzing the Nahuatl rendering of Kukulcau's name I
would point out the noteworthy coincidence that, during his reign
at Chichen-Itza and Mayapan, he practically united in his person
and assumed the offices formerly fulfilled by four rulers, of which
he had been only one.

I would, moreover, draw attention to the remarkable, sculptured
columns which support the main portal of the main pyramid-tem
ple called FA Castillo at Chichen-Itza. These represent gigantic
feathered serpents and are figured on pi. xiv of Mr. Win Holmes'
most instructive and useful "Archaeological Studies, Part i, Monu-

505

70 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

meuts of Yucatan." The feathers carved on the massive columns
are evidently the precious tail feathers of the quetzal, which have
the peculiarity of exhibiting, according to the way the light falls
upon them, blue, red, yellow and green colors — precisely those
assigned to the four quarters by the Mexicans and for all we know
to the contrary, by the Mayas. Whether this feather was chosen
for this peculiarity or for its beauty only, as that with which to
deck the effigy of the divinity, can, of course, only be conjectured.
In Mexico numberless eftigies of 'feathered serpents exist. The
resemblance of the sound of the Nahuatl words: feather = ihuitl,
and heaven or sky = ilhui-catl, should be recorded here as a pos
sible reason for the association of feathers with the serpent and
as a means of conveying the idea of its divinity. It should also
be noted that quetzal, the name of the most precious feathers the
natives possessed, resembles in sound, the second part of the
Nahuatl words for flame =: tle-cueral-lotl, or for u tongue of fire "
= tle-cuecal-uenepilli. That the feathered serpent was an image
of the divinity is finally proven, I think, by the following passage
from Sahagun which establishes that the earliest form, under which
the divinity was revered by the Mexicans, was that of fire: 'kOf
all the gods the [most] ancient one is the God of Fire, who dwells
in the midst of flowers, in an abode surrounded by four walls and
is covered with shining feather* like wings" (op. dt. book vr, chap,
iv). It is thus shown that whilst the word ihuitl = feather sug
gested something divine, the word quetzal, besides being the name
of a particular kind of feather, conveyed the idea of something
resplendent or shining [like fire]. The name for serpent, coatl,
signified twin ; thus there is a profound analogy between the
Maya and Mexican symbol, pointing, however, to the Yucatan form
as the most ancient.

Let us see how the name Quetzal-coatl occurs in Mexico. It
is given as the name of the "supreme god whose substance was as
invisible and intangible as air," but who was also revered as the
o-od of fire. The constant reference to air in connection with the

supreme divinity caused him to be also adored as the god of air
and of the four winds. On the other hand, the divine title of
Quetzal-coatl was carried by the culture-hero whose personality
has been discussed and who was a Yucatec ruler and high priest.
Sahagun (op. cit. book in, chap, ix) informs us that "• Quequet-
zalcoa," the plural form of the word Quetzalcoatl, was employed
506

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 71

to designate "• the high priextx (elsewhere designated as the ' su
preme pontiffs ') who were the successors of Quetzalcoatl." He also
states that " the high priest of the temple was [the representative
of] the god Quetzalcoatl " (book i, chap. 5). " The priest who was
most perfect in his conduct and in wisdom was elected to be high

priest and assumed the name of Quetzalcoatl There

were two such high priests equal in rank and honours

One of these, the Quetzalcoatl Totec Tlamacazqui, was in the ser
vice of Huitzilopochtli." Without pausing here to analyze this title
since it will be discussed in detail in another publication I will only
repeat that, after years of careful research, I have obtained the
certainty that the foregoing title and office were those held by Mon-
tezuma at the time of the Conquest. What is more, I can produce
ample evidence to prove that he was the living personification of
Huitzilopochtli one of the " divine twins" and of the Above. He
was not the first Mexican ruler who had filled this exalted role, for
it is recorded that Axayacatl, one of Acamapichtli's successors,
had represented, in life, "our god Huitzilopochtli/' After his death
his effigy "was first covered with a fine robe representing Huitzilo
pochtli ; over this was hung the dress of Tlaloc . . . the next
garment was that of Youalahua [— the lord of the wheel] and the
fourth was that of Quetzalcoatl" (Duran, vol. i, chap. 39, pp.
304 and 306).

Let us now see how Montezuma's personification of Huitzilo
pochtli was carried out by his life and his surroundings. Accord
ing to Bernal Diaz, an eye-witness, when the great Montezuma
came forth in state to meet Cortes, he was conveyed on a sump
tuous litter, being thus raised above the earth.1 When he de
scended from this and walked, the golden soles of his sandals pre
vented his feet from coming into direct contact with the ground ;
he was supported, i. e. partially held up, by his four principal

' In connection with Montezuma's use of a litter it should he noticed that, in the
picture-writings, only the culture-hero Quetzalcoatl and the bird god Lluit/ilopochtli
are represented as seated on litters. The two bars of Quetzalcoatl' s litter, ligured in
Dnran's atlas (Tratado 2, cap. 1 a) terminate at each end in a serpent's head. The
pair of twin serpents thus rendered, evidently convey an allusion to his name, which
would be equally comprehensible in the Maya or Mexican languages. In another por
tion of Duran's Atlas (Trat. -2, chap. 2), Huitzilopochtli is figured as seated on a litter
masked as a bird, and a finely-executed native picture of the bird-god, being borne
on a litter, is in the B. N. MS. where he is named "the precious lord " and is repre
sented with a sceptre in his hand surmounted by a heart. This latter detail is of spe
cial interest, since it indicates that the Mexicans employed the heart with the same
symbolical and metaphorical meaning as the Maya-Quiches and Tzentals. The latter

507

i '•! KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

lords, and a baldachin adorned with light greenish-blue feathers,
gold, pearls and jade representing the xoxouhqui-ilhuicatl = "the
verdant or blue sky" (which was, by the way, a title of Huitzilo-
pochtli), was carried over his head. Other lords preceded him,
kt sweeping the ground and spreading blankets upon it so that he
should not tread upon the earth. All of these lords did not dare
to think of raising their eyes to look at his face — only the four
lords, his cousins, who supported him, possessed this privilege "
(Bernal Diaz, Historia Verdadera de la Conquista. Madrid, 1632,
p. 65). A feature, the origin of which can be directly traced back
to the association of the star-god, Polaris, with repose and immov
ability, was that Montezuma, like his predecessors, was the only
person privileged to sit, on state occasions, on a throne or raised
seat with a high back and rest whilst all other individuals stood
or moved about him.

From several sources we know that Montezuma habitually wore
blue or white attire, which sometimes was of open network. He
employed gold, precious blue and green feathers, turquoise, pearls
and emeralds for his personal ornaments. His diadem with a high
point in front, was incrusted with turquoise or was made of bur
nished gold. He sometimes wore a crown made of featherwork,
with a bird's head of gold above his forehead. His emblem was
the sun, the orb of day, and he presided over its cult which had
developed itself simultaneously with the cult of the Above, a fea
ture of which was the offering of " birds, butterflies and flowers."
Sometimes he wore, " attached to his sandals, small wings, named
tzi-coyolli, resembling the wing of a bird. These produced a sound
like that of tiny gold bells when he walked" (Tezozomoc, Cronica,
p. 594).

It must be admitted, on reading the foregoing descriptions gleaned
from Salmgim's Historia, that it would be impossible to carry out,
more perfectly and completely, the idea that Montezuma was
the earthly representative of the Upper regions, the blue heaven.
By pushing symbolism so far that he actually wore wings on his

hail named their culture-hero " Votau " = " the Heart " (of the people). (Brinton
Hero-myths, p. '217.) In the Popol-Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiches, the supreme
divinity is named " the Heart of the heaven, whose name is Hurakan." He is also
named the " Heart of the Earth, " a title whose equivalent in j\Iexico=Tepe-Yollotl,
was applied to Tezeatlipoca and associated with the bodiless voice, the echo, which
\va* supposed to proceed from the "heart (or life) of the Mountain." The above
data undoubtedly prove the important point that Huit/.ilopochtli and Tezeatlipoca
were respectively entitled " the Heart of the Heaven" and "the Heart of the Earth."

508

AMKUJCAN CIVILIZATIONS. 73

feet and avoided contact with the ground, it is not surprising that
Montezuma's adversaries, amongst neighboring tribes, should ac
cuse him of exacting divine honors for his own person. At the
same time there is no doubt that his own subjects revered him
merely as a temporary representative and mouth-piece of the im
personal dual divinity. This idea is clearly conveyed by some
native harangues, to which I refer the reader, and from which I
extract the following passages :

After his election, the ruler is solemnly addressed by one of the
chief lords who says to him: 'fc Oh ! our humane, pious and be
loved lord, who deserves to be more highly esteemed than all prec
ious stones and feathers, you are here present because our sovereign
god has placed thee [above us] as our lord. . . . You possess
the seat and throne which was given [to your predecessors] by our
lord god " . . . " you are the image of our lord god and rep
resent his person. He reposes in you and he employs you like a
flute through which he speaks and he hears with your ears. . . .
Oh, lord king ! God sees what the persons do who rule over his
domains and when they err in their office he laughs at them, but
in silence, for he is god, and is omnipotent and can mock at whom
he will. For he holds all of us in the palm of his hand and rocks
us about, and we are like balls or round globes in his hands and
we go rolling from one side to the other and make him laugh, and
he serves himself of us as we go moving about on the palm of his
hand!"

"Although tliou art our neighbour and friend and son and brother,
we are no more thy equals, nor do we consider you as a man, for
now you have the person, the imnge, the conversation and the
communion of our lord god. lie speaks inside of you and instructs
you and lets himself be heard through your mouth — his tongue
is your tongue, and your face is his face ... he has adorned
you with his authority and has given you fangs and claws so that
you should be feared and reverenced . . ." (Sahagun, book
vr, chap. 10).

The foregoing figure of speecli in which fangs and claws are
alluded to as symbols of, fear-inspiring power affords as valuable
an insight into the native modes of thought and expression as do the
similes employed in the following address to the newly-elected ruler
by the spokesman of his vassals.

509

74 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

'•Oh lord! may you live many years to fill your office prosper
ously ; submit your shoulders to the very heavy and troublesome
load ; extend your wings and breast as a shelter to your subjects
whom you have to carry as a load. Oh, lord ! let your town and
vassals enter under your shadow, for you are [unto them] like the
tree named puchotl or aueuetl, which casts a great circle or wheel
of shade, under which many are gathered in shelter" (op. eft.
book vi, chap .11).

The admonition also addressed -to the ruler, " Never to laugh
and joke again as he had done previously to his election, and to
assume the heart of an old, grave and severe man," explains the
true significance of the name of Moutezuma or Mo-tecuh-zoma ;
which was an honorific title literally meaning, " our angry or
wrathy [looking] lord."

Whilst the above data establish beyond a doubt that the Mex
ican Quetzalcoatl was regarded as the visible representative of the
celestial ruler of the universe and that divine honors were volun
tarily accorded to him, it is interesting to read Montezuma's expla
nation to Cortes concerning this question. The latter writes :
" seated on a raised seat Montezuma discoursed as follows :
' I know that you have been told by my enemies that I am, or
have made myself a god.' . . . Raising his robes he showed
me his body saying : ' Here you see that I am made of flesh and
bone, like yourself or like any one, and that I am mortal and tan
gible.' Grasping his arms and his body with his hands he con
tinued : ' see how they have like to you.' ' . (Historia,
Hernan Cortes, ed. Lorenzana, p. 82). Better than all disserta
tions, the above words convey an idea of the nnVf simplicity of
the man who uttered them.

Referring the reader to Mr. Ad. Bandelier's study, u On the
social organization and mode of government of the ancient Mexi
cans," for further details concerning the duties respectively filled
by Montezuma and his coadjutor, I shall only explain here the
conclusion I have reached that the former was the high priest of
the cult of the sun and heaven, the visible ruler, the war lord, and
the administrator of justice. As stated in a native harangue :
*' the supreme lord is like unto the heart of the population .
he is aided by two senators in all concerning the administration of
the government : one of these was a ' pilli ' and was named
510

AMKRK AN CIVILIZATIONS. lO

tlaca-tecuhtli ; the other was a warrior and was entitled tlacoch-
tecuhtli. Two other chieftains aided the supreme lord in the mili
tia : one, entitled tlaca-teccatl, was a ' pilli ' and warrior; the
other, named tlacoch-calcatl, was not a ' pilli.' Such is the govern
ment or administration of the republic . . . and these four
officers did not occupy these positions by inheritance but by elec
tion " (Sahagun, book vi, chap. 20).

The following account of the republic of Tlaxcalla throws fur
ther light upon the form of government which prevailed through
out Mexico and Central America at the period of the Conquest.
" The Captains of Tlaxcalla, each of whom had his just portion
or number of soldiers . . . divided their soldiers into four
Battails, the one to Tepeticpac, another to Oco-telulco, the third to
Tizatlan and the fourth to Quiahuiztlan, that is to say, the men of
the Mountains, the men of the Limepits, the men of the Pinetrees,
and the Watermen ; all these four sorts of men did make the
body of the Commonwealth of Tlaxcallan, and commanded both in
Peace and War . . . The General of all the whole army was
called Xico-tencatl, who was of the Limepits . . . the Lieu
tenant General was Maxix-catzin . . ." (A new survey of
the West-Indies . . . Thomas Gage, London, 1655, p. 31).
In Mexico we find that the four executive officers were the chiefs
or representatives of the four quarters of the City of Mexico. In
each of these quarters there was a place where periodical offerings
were made in reverence of one of the signs : acatl, tecpatl, callii
and tochtli, which were the symbols of the cardinal-points, the
elements, and served as day and year signs in the calendar
(Sahagun, book n, chap. 26).

An interesting indication that the entire dominion of Mexico
was also divided into four equal quarters, the rule administration
of which was attended to by four lords, inhabiting towns situated
within a comparatively short distance from the capital, is furnished
by Bernal Diaz (pp. tit. p. 65). He relates that the four lords
who supported Moutezuma when he walked in state to meet Cortes
were the lords of Texcoco, Iztapalapa, Tacuba and Coyoacan.
These towns, which were minor centres of government, were re
spectively situated at unequal distances to the northeast, south
east, northwest and southwest of the capital.

These facts and the knowledge that " all lords, in life, repre
sented a god" justify the inference that, just as Montezuma rep-

511

7G KEY-NOTE OF AXPIKXT

resented the central power of the Above or Heaven, the four lords
who accompanied him were the personified rulers of the four quar
ters, associated with the elements. In ancient Mexico and Maya
records the gods of the four quarters, also named " the four prin
cipal and most ancient Gods " are designated as '• the sustainers of
the Heaven " and it cannot be denied that, on the solemn occasion
described, the four lords actually fulfilled the symbolical office of
supporting Montezuma, the personification of the Heaven. This
striking illustration is but one of a number I could cite in proof
of the deeply ingrained mental habit of the native sages to intro
duce, into every detail of their life, the symbolism of the Centre,
the Above and Below and the Four Quarters. I shall but mention
here that it can be proven how, in their respective cities the lords
of the cardinal points were central rulers who, in turn, directed the
administration of the government by means of four dignitaries.
Each of these was also the embodiment of a divine attribute or
principle, "All noblemen did represent idols and carried the name
of one" (Acosta, Naturall and Movall Historic, lib. o, p. 349).

Each wore a special kind of symbolical costume and was the
ruler or " advocate," as he is termed, of a distinct class of people.
" For to each kind or class of persons they gave a Teotl [— God
or Lord] as an advocate. When a person died and was about to
be buried, they clothed him with the diverse Insignia of the god
to whom he belonged" (Mendieta lib. n, chap. 40). It being
established that each of the four year-symbols, acatl, tecpatl, calli
and tochtli, ruled four minor symbols, it seems evident that, just
as the four lords of the cardinal-points would correspond to the
above symbols, each of the minor lords and the category of people
they represented would also be associated with the minor symbols.
The obvious result of this classification would be the division of
the entire population of the commonwealth into 4 X o = "20 cate
gories of people, grouped under twenty local and four central gov
ernments, whose representatives in turn were under the rule of the
supreme central dual powers. Having thus sketched, in a brief
and preliminary way, the expansion of the idea of dividing all
things into four parts, the bud of which was the swastika, let us
examine the Mexican application of the idea of duality, pausing
first to review the data relating to the Cihuacoatl, the personifica
tion of the Earth, the Below and the coadjutor of Montezuma.

Nothing has been definitely recorded about his personality, for
512

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. / /

he seems to have lived in absolute seclusion during the first occu
pation of Mexico by the Spaniards. He is frequently alluded to,
however, and Cortes, Herrera, Torquemada and others, inform us
that he had acted as Montezuma's substitute and led the native
troops against the Spaniards. It is interesting to find that after
the Conquest Cortes appointed him as governor of the City of
Mexico. " I gave him the charge of re-peopling the capital and
in order to invest him with greater authority, I reinstated him in
the same position, that of Cihuacoatl, which he had held in the
time of Montezuma" (Carta Cuarta, Veytia i, p. 110).

Quite indirectly, it is possible to learn what sort of military
equipment had been adopted by the Cihuacoatl when he acted as
war-chief. Amongst certain presents, which were sent by Cortes
to Charles V and are minutely described in vol. xn of the uDoc-
umentas ineditas del Archivio de Indias," p. 347, there are several
suits of armor, which could only have been appropriately worn by
the " woman serpent." One suit consisted of a "corselet with
plates of gold and with woman's breasts " and a skirt with blue
bands. Another suit, instead of the breasts, exhibited a great
wound in the chest, like that of a person who had been sacrificed.
In another list (by Diego de Soto, p. 349) a shield is described
" which displayed a sacrificed man, in gold, with a gaping wound
in his breast, from which blood was streaming . . ." It is
obvious that the first of these suits of armor conveyed figura
tively the name and the second the office of the Cihuacoatl of
whom Duran speaks as follows :

" He whose office it \vas to perform the rite of killing [the victim]
was revered as the supreme pontiff and his name or title and pon
tifical robes varied according to the different periods [of the year]
and the ceremonies which he had to perform. On the present
occasion his title was Topiltzin, one of the names of the great
lord . . . (Quetzalcoatl) and he appeared carrying a large
flint knife in his hand . . ." (op. cit., chap. LXXXI). The
following passage shows definitely that Montezuma's coadjutor,
his Quetzalcoatl or divine twin, had an equal share of divine
honors accorded to him. "The head priest of the temple, named
Quetzalcoatl, never came out of the temple or entered into any
house whatever, because he was very venerable and very grave and
was esteemed as a god. He only went into the royal palace"
(Sahagun, book vi, chap. 39). The same authority designates
p. M. PAPERS i 33 513

78 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the second i(> divine twin " as the Tlalocan-tlamacazqui or, Tlalocan-
tlenamacac and states that he served the Tlalocan-tecuhtli.

Before proceeding further, let us pause and inquire into the rea
son why the name Tlaloc, which is formed of tlalli r=r earth and is
defined by Duran, for instance, as meaning " an underground
passage or a great cave" (op. wY., chap. 84), should be the well-
known title of the " god of rain." The explanation is to be found
in the text of the Vatican Codex, A. Kingsborough, v, p. 190.
This teaches us that the last syllable of the name Tlaloc does not
represent oc = inside of, but stands for octli, the name of the
native wine now known as pulque, which is obtained from the
agave plant. Tlaloc thus meant u earth-wine " and u by this met
aphor they wanted to express that just as the fumes of wine make
mankind gay and happy, so the earth when saturated with water,
is gay and fresh and produces its fruits and cereals." By the light
of this explanation we see that the titles conferred upon Monte-
zuma's coadjutor were literally " the priest or lord, or dealer-of-
fire in the place of the earth-wine." The clouds, rain, thunder
and lightning were attributed to. the lord Tlaloc who had many
tlalocs and priests under him, who cultivated all foods necessary
for the body, such as maize, beans, etc., and sent the rains so that
the earth should give birth to all of its products. During their
festival in springtime the priests went through the streets dancing
and singing and carrying a shoot of green maize in one hand and
a pot with a handle in the other. In this way they went asking
for the [ceremonial] boiled maize and all farmers gave them
some" . . . (Sahagun, book vi, chap. 5).

The above and many scattered allusions throw light upon the
group of ideas associated with the Cihuacoatl and clearly indicate
what were his duties. To him devolved the care of the earth and
his one thought, was to secure abundance of rain and of crops.
Ju order to ensure the proper cultivation of the ground, he had,
under him, innumerable agents, who strictly superintended the cul
tivation of all food-plants, the irrigation of barren lands, etc.
These agents, who also resorted to ceremonial usages in order to
bring rain or avert hail-storms and other disasters, were collect
ively named "the 400 pulque or octli-gods " —an appellation
which developed into tochtli-gods, when the rabbit (= tochtli) had
become the pictogrnph habitually employed to convey the sound of
the word octli, and lutd been adopted as the symbol of the earth
514

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 79

and of prolific reproduction in connection with this. The latter
idea is born out of the female title, that of the earth-mother, who
"always brought forth twins." The Cihuacoatl thus stands out as
the representative of the bountiful mother-earth and as the lord of
agriculture, one of whose duties was the careful collection, storage
and distribution of all food products. lie presided over the cult
of the fertility of the earth, of the nocturnal heaven, of the stars
and moon, which were associated with the female principle and with
growth in general. The following record proves that amongst his
other duties he offered sacrifices to the invisible hidden powers of
darkness and earth. " During the night, in the feast Tititl, the
high priest named Tlillan tleuamacac [z= the dealer with fire in
the land of darkness = tlilli = black, evidently a title analogous to
that of Tlill-potonqui-cihuacoatl, given by Tezozomoc, in Cronica,
chap. 33], sacrificed a victim in honour of the god of the Under
world" (Sahagun, book n, appendix). In this, as on similar
occasions, he was assisted by four priests who succeeded him in
rank.

Mr. Bandelier has already recognized that judicial sentences
were ultimately referred to the '• woman-serpent," who pronounced
the ''final sentence, which admitted of no appeal." There are more
reasons than can conveniently be presented here, proving that in
Mexico, as in Guatemala, the priest of the Below, the personifica
tion of Tezcatli-poca = Shining Mirror, employed an actual mirror
made of polished obsidian, as an aid in pronouncing final judg
ment on criminals.

The Cakchiquel procedure is described by Fuentes of Guzman,
who is quoted by Dr. Otto Stoll in his most instructive and val
uable work on the Ethnology of the Indian Tribes of Guatemala
(Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnographic, band i, supplement i,
1888) : *' A road leads [from the ancient city of Guatemala] to a
hill [figured with a large tree growing from it] ; on its top there is
a flat circular cement floor, enclosed by a low wall. In the centre
is a pedestal, polished and shining like glass. No one knows of
what substance it is made. This was the tribunal or court of the
Cakchiquel Indians, where public trials were held and where the
sentences were executed. The judges sat in a circle on the low
wall. After the sentence had been pronounced, it had to be con-
tinned or vetoed by another authority. Three messengers, acting
as deputies of the council, went to a deep ravine situated to the

515

80 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

north of the palace, where, in a sort of hermitage or prayer-house,
there was the oracle of the devil, which was a black, transparent
stone, like glass, but more costly than [ordinary] obsidian. Tn
this stone the devil revealed to the messengers, the sentence to be
executed. If it agreed with the judgment pronounced, this was
immediately executed upon the central pedestal [of the hill of jus
tice] on which the criminal was also tortured, at times." If noth
ing was seen in the mirror, and it gave no sign, the prisoner was
pronounced free.

This oracle was also consulted before wars were undertaken . . .
" During the first years of the Spanish occupation, when the bishop
Marroquin heard about this stone, he had it cut out and conse
crated it as an altar, which is still in use in the convent of San
Francisco in the capital. It is a precious stone of great beauty
and is half a vara long."

A picture in the Vatican Codex B (p. 48) represents a temple,
on the summit of which a large obsidian mirror is standing on its
edge. Inside the doorway there are many small black spots, which
obviously represent small mirrors and convey the idea that the in
terior walls were incrusted with such. These illustrations would
prove that sacred edifices were associated with obsidian mirrors
even if Sahagun did not mention, as he does (book n, appendix),
no less than three sacred edifices in the great temple of Mexico,
which were associated with obsidian mirrors. It is, moreover,
stated by Duran that " in Mexico the image of the god Tezcatli-
poca was a stone, which was very shining and black, like jet. It
was of the same stone of which the natives make razors and
knives," i. e., obsidian (Duran ir, p. 98).

What is more, Bernal Diaz relates that the image of Tezcatli-
poca, which he saw beside the idol of Huitzilopochtli in the hall of
the great temple of Mexico, had shining eyes which were made
of the native mirrors = tezcatl. "In connection with the shin
ing eyes " of the god it is interesting to note that when, as Durau
states, he was represented under another form, his idol " carried
in its hand a sort of fan made of precious feathers. These sur
mounted a circular gold disc which was very brilliant and polished
like a mirror. This meant that, in this mirror, he saw all that
went on in the world. In the native language they named it ' itla-
chiayan,' which means, that in which he looks or sees" (Duran,
op. cit., vol. n, p. 99).

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 81

Sahagun mentions an analogous sceptre which consisted of tc a
gold disc pierced in the centre, and surmounted by two balls, the
upper and smaller of which supported a pointed object. This
sceptre was called tlachieloni, which means ' that through which
one looks or observes;' because with it one covered or hid one's
face and looked through the hole in the middle of the gold plate."
This kind of sceptre is not exclusively associated with Tezcatlipoca
in the native picture writings, for it figures in the hand of Chalchi-
uhtlycue " the sister" of Tlaloc and of Omacatl whose attributes,
the reeds and chalchiuite or jade beads, prove him to be also
associated with the water. On the other hand the same sceptre is
also assigned by Sahagun to the god of fire.

A clue to the truth and significance of this emblematic sceptre
is furnished by the fact that, in order to express the divine title
Tlachiuale, meaning "the Maker or Lord of all creatures or of
young life," the native scribes were naturally obliged to employ
the verb tlachia = to look or see, in order to convey its sound. It
is obvious that they cleverly agreed to express this verb by pict
uring some object wrhich could be or was looked through. They
therefore adopted a sceptre with a hollow disc, as an emblem,
which was carried by the living representative of certain divinities,
whose entire costume was in reality a sort of rebus, and in the
case of Tlaloc, the lord of earthwine and fertility and the Tlachi
uale or " Creator of young life," par excellence, they once and for
all designated his title by surrounding his eyes with two blue rings,
accentuating thereby the action of seeing or looking. But this
probably conveyed even more than the above title, for there is a
Nahuatl noun tlachiuhtli, which means, " something made or formed
or engendered," or " earth which is ploughed and sown." Then
there is the verb tlachipaua which means, " the smile of dawn, the
break of day, the clearing up of the weather," also t}ie purification
and cleansing, all of which were supposed to be under the dominion
of the rain-god and of his living representatives on earth, the rain-
priests. The seemingly conflicting fact that the tlachieloni sceptre
was also assigned to the god of fire is explained by the existence
of the verb tiachinoa = to burn up the fields or forests, and of the
noun tlachi-noliztli := the act of burning up or scorching the fields
or forests, and finally, metaphorically, tlachinoli-teuotl =. war or
battle — destruction. It is only when we thus realize all the na
tives could express by the image of an eye, looking through a

517

82 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

circle, that we begin to grasp its full meaning when employed as a
symbol in their picture writings.

As to the obsidian mirror, which undoubtedly was the symbol
of Tezcatlipoca and, consequently, must have pertained to his
representative, the priest of the Night, we find that it played a
most prominent role in the cult he presided over. In the first
case it appears as though it was resorted to in Mexico as in the
conquered province of Guatemala, as the oracle which rendered
final judgment. A series of illustrations, etc., to be published in
my final work on the Calendar System, will prove satisfactorily
that the Mexican astronomers extensively employed black obsidian
mirrors as an aid to astronomical observations, by means of re
flection. Besides mirrors on the summits of temples and moun
tains, certain square columns, placed on an elevation and faced
with a broad band of polished obsidian, are pictured in some Cod
ices. It is obvious that the latter in particular, if carefully oriented,
would have served as an admirable means of registering the peri
odical return of planets, stars or constellations to certain positions ;
they would then be reflected on the polished surface, as in a frame.
In certain Codices the double, tan-shaped courtyard or enclosure
surrounded by a high wall with battlements, which was employed
in the daytime for the national game of ball, figures in combina
tion with obsidian mirrors. I draw attention to the fact that the
name of these courtyards was tlach-tli, which literally means the
looking place = the observatory and that, amongst the edifices
of the great temple, a tezca-tlachtli = obsidian-mirror-observa-
tory, is described. I shall demonstrate more fully, on another
occasion, that the chief purpose of these enclosures was to serve
as astronomical observatories. Dr. Briuton, Seiior Troncoso and
other authorities have already observed that the game of ball itself
was intended to represent the idea of the perpetual motion of the
heavenly bodies. (See American Hero-myths, p. 119.)

Returning to reexamine the divine title Tezcatlipoca we see that,
when interpreted as " the lord of the shining obsidian mirror,"
it was the most appropriate title of the lord of the Nocturnal
Heaven, which myriads of mirrors reflected each night, throughout
the land. It is easy to see how the habit of referring to the
Temple Mirror, in order to ascertain the positions of the stars,
would naturally lead to its being consulted more extensively as an
oracle later on. We thus clearly perceive how the lord of the
518

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 83

Night, whose priests called themselves u the sons of the Night,"
became intimately associated with divination and how the idea of a
definite connection between the movements of the stars or human
destinies would, in the lapse of centuries, make a deep and indel
ible impression upon the minds of men.

If the obsidian mirror was the symbol, par excellence, of Mexi
can star cult, there are evidences that the small mirror of polished
pyrites was that of the sun-cult. The latter seems to have been
employed, in some way or other, for the concentration of the rays
of the sun required for the lighting of the sacred fire, at noon, on
the days of the vernal equinox and summer solstice. As in Peru,
this duty devolved upon the high priest of the Above or the Sou
of the Sun, a title which undoubtedly pertained also to the Mexi
can ruler, though not employed so ostentatiously as in Peru. A
keen emulation, which may almost be termed an intense rivalry,
seems to have existed between the two cults, which Sahagim even
goes so far as to designate as two religions. From a chapter of
his Historia we even learn that the entire population of Mexico
was divided into two halves who respectively belonged to one or
the other religion, a fact which naturally affected the position of
the two classes of people and had created the native ideas, of an
upper and a lower class or caste which will be further discussed.

Sahagun's informants explained to him that, when a child was
born, its parents, according to their class, registered it at one of
the two educational establishments for the young and took vows
to have it educated there as soon as it attained a suitable age.
The lower class took their offspring to the Telpuchcalli, where they
were dedicated to the service of the community and to warfare,
i. e., the ruling class. k' The ' Lords, chieftains or elders,' offered
their sons to the Calmecac to be educated for the priesthood."

It being impossible to present here in full the data showing how
certain primitive conceptions had developed further and how some
human occupations had become associated with the Above and
others with the Below, I will but point out the important fact that
the city of Mexico, divided into four quarters, each of which had
five subdivisions (calpullis), actually consisted of two distinct
parts. One of these was Mexico proper, where the Great Temple
stood and where Montezuma and the lords resided ; the other was
Tlatelolco, where the lower classes dwelt and the merchant class
prevailed. After a certain revolt the inhabitants of this portion

519

84 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

of the city were, we are told, " degraded to the rank of women"
(see Bandelier, op. et loc. tit.). From this it would seem evident
that their affairs or lawsuits were settled in the official house named
the Cihua-tecpaneca, whilst the affairs of the nobility, residing in
Mexico proper, were disposed of in the Tlaca-tecpaneca (see Du-
ran, chap. 3). Knowledge of the prevalence of the division of the
population into two parts is gained through a passage of Ixtl-
ilxo-chitl's Historia (chap, xxxv, p. 241) : " To Quetzalmemalitzin
was given the lordship of Teotihuaean . . . with the title of Cap
tain-general of the dominion of the noblemen. All affairs or law
suits of the lords and the nobility belonging to the towns of the
provinces situated in the plain, were to be attended to and settled
in his town. The same title was bestowed upon Quechaltecpan-
tzin of Otompan, with the difference that he was the captain-gen
eral of the commoners and attended to the affairs and claims of
the commoners and populace of the provinces in the plains."

A further detail concerning the position of the ancient capital of
Mexico should not be omitted, for it is described as follows by the
English friar Thomas Gage, who visited it in 1625 : " The situa
tion of this city is much like that of Venice, but only differs in
this, that Venice is built upon the sea-water, and Mexico upon a
lake, which seeming one is indeed two ; one part whereof is stand
ing water, the other ebbeth and floweth according to the wind that
bloweth. That part which standeth is wholesome, good and sweet,
and yieldeth store of small fish. That part which ebbeth and
floweth is a saltish bitter and pestiferous water, yielding no kind
of fish, small or great" (p. 43). Added to other data, this detail
seems to indicate that the geographical position of the capital
had been chosen with utmost care and profound thought, so that,
built on a dual island on a dual lake, it should be in itself an image
or illustration of the ideas of organization which I have shown
to have dominated the entire native civilization. If it be admitted,
as I think is evident, that the site of the capital was chosen and
mapped out in accordance with these ideas, then we undoubtedly
have, in ancient Mexico, not only one of the most remarkable
"Holy Cities" ever built by mankind, but also the most convincing
proof of the great antiquity and high development of the civiliza
tion under whose influence one of the greatest capitals of ancient
America was founded.

It is impossible to read the following descriptions without recog-
520

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 85

nizing that the identical fundamental ideas had undoubtedly de
termined the native topography of capitals situated in other parts
of the continent. Beginning with Guatemala, which formed a part
of ancient Mexico, I refer to the plan of the ancient capital and
its description by Fuentes of Guzman, published by Dr. Otto Stoll
in his work already cited : "A deep ditch, running from north to
south, divided the town into two portions. One of these, situated
to the east, was inhabited by the nobility ; whilst the commoners
(Macehuales) lived in the western division." I pause here to call
attention to the intentional coincidence that the association of
the east with the Above, and the west with the Below, is exempli
fied here, topographically. The plan shows that the eastern half
contained, in its centre, a great, oblong enclosure, surrounded by
a high wall. A wall, running from east to west, divided this en
closure into two distinct courtyards with wide separate entrances
from the west. The northern courtyard, designated as the " Place
of the Palace," contains several buildings. The southern one,
named the " Place of the Temple," contains an edifice on a ter
raced mound and several others. It is noticeable that, in the exact
middle of the central wall, there is a seemingly double, unfortu
nately indistinguishable object, or building, which marks the exact
middle of the entire dual enclosure. It is particularly interesting
that the E)ast City is divided into two portions by a wall running
from the southeast angle of the wall of the Temple courtyard to the
outer wall of the city. The southern half, in which the '' Tribunal
or hill of justice is to be seen, is designated as containing the
houses of the Ahauas or heads of the Calpuls." The northern
half, containing many houses, lacks designation. The West city
is likewise divided into two distinct portions by a broad street,
enclosed by a hill wall and conducting from the western and only
entrance to the city directly to the Place of the Temple. A deep
trench or ditch encloses the entire city, whilst nine watch-towers,
on small hills, are placed at equal distances around it.

If this precious document clearly reveals the ground plan on
which the native capitals were built, in accordance with the domi
nant idea, the following native map shows that the ancient domin
ion of Yucatan, for instance, was figured as an integral whole with
form of a flat disc divided into four quarters, Ho, the modern
Merida, in its centre. This map, copied from the native Codex
Chumazel, has been published by Senor Crescencio Carillo of An-

521

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

cona in the Anales del Museo Nacional cle Mexico, vol. n, p. 43,
as showing the territorial division of Yucatan before the Conquest
(fig. 27). According to Herrera and Diego de Lamia, the unity
of the dominion was destroyed about two centuries before the Con
quest by the destruction of the capital, Mayapan. The land then
remained divided amongst many independent chiefs or Bacabs.
Seiior Carillo renders the Maya de
scriptive text written under the map,
as follows : " Here is Mani. The be '
ginning of the land, or its entrance,
is Campeche. The extremity of the
wing of the hind is Calkini ; the
(chun) place where the wing grows
or begins, is Izamal. The half of
the wing is Zaci ; the tip of the wing-
is Cumkal. The head of the laud
is the city, the capital Ho."

The foregoing text shows that,
notwithstanding the circular shape in which it is figured, the
dominion was evidently thought of us in the form of a bird, the
head of which was the capital.

This figure of speech seems to have been prevalent in Mexico
also and to be conveyed by the representation, in the Vienna Co

:^ rtiumpfrri, rninprrh.-
V ni sik peten l-.alkini.-n 0)11,11 <i sill
pi-ten Itjtmal. I' <-lnimii<- u xik (H-II-II
Zari.-U ni vik ppt<>ii ( niiikal.-l' pol
PPN-I. chiii.i.K rali li Ho.

FIG. 28.

dex, of a double tan-shape to which the head, wings and claw, and
tail of a quetzal are attached (fig. 28. no. 8). As I shall have occa
sion to demonstrate further on, the double tan signifies the Above
and the Below7 and their union forming an integral whole. The
following Nahuatl terms explain by themselves the symbolism of

AMKRICAX riVILIZATIOXS. 87

the bird-figure : cuitlapilli = the tail of an animal or bird, atla-
palli = the wings of a bird, or the leaves of a tree, cuitlapalli at-
lapalli = vassals, the populace or lower classes, the laborers.

These words furnish irrefutable evidence that the lower class
was familiarly known in Mexico as "the wings and the tail" of the
commonwealth or state, or the leaves " on the trees " of the tribe.
Sahagun states, on the other hand, that the Mexicans employed the
metaphor of kl a bird with wings and a tail " to designate a lord,
governor or ruler. He also records that the terms hair, nails, a
thorn, a spine, beard and eyelashes, were used to signify " some
one who was noble, generous or of the lineage of the lords." Such
metaphors as these may well cause us to despair at arriving at a
complete understanding of the native imagery and symbolism.
The symbolism of the bird's claw yet remains to be looked into.
The Nahuatl for the same is xo-maxaltic, xo-tzayanqui or cho-
cholli.

In one of the ancient Mexican harangues, previously quoted, it
is said of the supreme ruler that he had been given " fangs and
nails " in order to inspire fear and reverence. Scattered evidence
and the fact that in the Codex Mendoza the decorated claws of an
eagle, for instance, appear as a military device on the shields of
certain war chiefs, seem to indicate that the warriors were spoken
of, metaphorically, as uthe claws or nails" of the state. The follow
ing passage finally proves that the tlachtli or courtyard the shape
of which was a double tau, as in fig. 28, no. 8, was regarded by the
Mexicans as an image of the state itself. In another native ha
rangue it was said of the newly-elected ruler : " He is now placed
or put into the Tlachtli, he has been invested with the leathern
gloves, so that he can govern and throw back the ball to the one
who throws it to him in the game. For the business of governing
very much resembles this game and the game of dice " (Saha
gun, book vi, chap. xiii). The latter game alluded to, the patolli,
was played on a mat in the shape of a cross, marked off with
divisions, with stone markers, the moves of which were decided
by the numbers obtained on casting the dice, which consisted of
beans with marks on them. It is interesting to find that the word
pat-olli seems to be connected with the verb pat-cayotia = to be
substituted in the place of another, or to succeed another in ollice
or dignity. The above comparison of the game to the business of
governing indicates that a feature of the government was a me-

523

00 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

thodical succession or rotation in office or dignity, a point to which

1 draw special attention, as I shall refer to it later.

The evidence that the Mexicans regarded the form of the court
yard, named tlachtli, as that of the state itself is noteworthy. On the
other hand, the native map contained in the Codex Mendoza, p. 1,
shows us that they figured their territory as a square, surrounded by
water and divided into four equal parts by diagonal cross-streams
or canals. As in the Maya map the centre of this is occupied by the
well-known hieroglyph or rebus of Te-noch-ti-tlan, the ancient cap
ital, which consisted of Mexico and Tlatelolco. In three of the
four triangular divisions, two chieftains are figured, whilst in one
there are four, the complete number of chieftains thus being ten.
The incontrovertible evidence that the dominion of the Mexicans,
as well as that of the Mayas, was figured and regarded as an in
tegral whole has seemed to me to be of extreme importance, be
cause it points to a fresh interpretation of the much-discussed
meaning of the name Tullan, u the glorious centre of culture where
the high priest Quetzalcoatl, had dwelt and whence he had been
driven by the wiles of his enemies. It is a place that we hear of
in the oldest myths and legends of many and different races. Not
only the Aztecs, but the Mayas of Yucatan and the Kiches and
Cakchiquels of Guatemala, bewailed in woful songs, the loss of
that beautiful land and counted its destruction as the common start
ing-point in their annals . . . According to the ancient Cak-
chiquel legends, however, . . . 'there were four Tullaus, as the
ancient men have told us.' The most venerable traditions of the
Maya race claimed for them a migration from Tullan in Zuyva."
u When it happened to me," says Friar Duran, "to ask a
[Mexican] Indian who cut this pass through the mountains or who
opened that spring of water or who built that old ruin? the answer
was : The Tultecs, the disciples of Papa," i.e., Quetzalcoatl. (See
Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 88.) Considering that the iden
tity of Tullan has not yet been satisfactorily established, that sev
eral Tullans are said to have existed and that a small town, about a
dozen leagues to the northeast of Mexico, is named Tullan-tzinco —
little Tullan, I should like to direct the attention of Americanists
to the following Maya words : Tul-um = fortification, edifice,
wall and enclosure. Tula-cal, Tuliz, adjectives •=. whole, entire,
undivided, integral. Tul-ul, adjective = general, universal. Tul-
tic, verb — to belong, to correspond to something. Tul = all
524

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 89

around or full. Tul =. in composition, to have abundance. Tul-
nah = to be too full, to overflow, to proceed, to issue, abound,
high-tide. Tulaan — past participle of tul.

I am of opinion that, after carefully examining the foregoing
words and their meanings, we must admit that an intelligible and
satisfactory derivation and signification of the much-discussed
Tula of the Mexicans, which has been vainly sought in the Na-
huatl language, are obtained if we connect it with the Maya words
for fortress, or stronghold, an enclosed place, an integral whole,
an overflowing source of abundance and plenty. If we do this,
then the problematic term Tolteca, given by Mexicans to the supe
rior people from whom they had derived their culture and knowl
edge, means nothing more than such persons who had belonged
(Maya verb tultic) or were members of a highly cultured common
wealth or ancient centre of civilization, such as had flourished
during countless centuries, in Yucatan and the present Chiapas,
Honduras and Guatemala.

Reserving this subject for future, more detailed, discussion, I
point out that the name Ho, given to the capital, which is designated
in the map as the " head of the land," is obviously derived from
the Maya hoi, hool, or hoot, which means not only head but also
chieftain. The circumstance that a single word, Ho, conveyed the
triple meaning of a capital, a chieftain and a head, is particularly
noteworthy, as it affords not only important clues to native sym
bolism, which I shall trace later on, but also shows that the pres
ence of the syllable Ho or O, in certain native names of localities,
may possibly indicate that it was a capital, the residence of a
chieftain. Further light is shed upon the following native asso
ciation of ideas when the following words are studied. The ancient
Maya name for a pyramid or artificial mound was ho-m and the
pyramidal elevations on which temples or palaces were built were
designated as ho-mul or o-mul (see Vocabulary, Brasseur de Bour-
bourg). The title Holpop was moreover that of the "chieftain
of the mat," whose prerogative it was to sit on a mat and to beat
the sacred drum during the public dances or ritual performances
(Cogolludo). The ancient word for vase, vessel or cup in gen
eral was ho-och, whilst o-och meant food or maintenance (Arte
de la lengua Maya, Fray Beltram de Santa Rosa, ed. Espinosa,
Merida, 1859). If the foregoing data be summarized we find that
the word ho, the ancient name of the head of the land, which is

525

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

figured iii its centre, is not only liomonymous with capital and
chieftain, but also with pyramid, vase or receptacle and mainte
nance, and finally with the numeral 5, also t»ho." We shall see
that the identical ideas were similarly associated in ancient Mexico.

Referring once more to the ancient map of Yucatan and to the
peculiarity that the head of the figurative bird, the capital, Ho, is
supposed to occupy the centre of the state. I point out nos. 1 and
f> (fig. 28 i from the Bodleian and Selden MSB. as somewhat anal
ogous representations of a central 'capital or chief, and nos. 3 and
6 as possibly being images of a territorial subdivision of the state,
resembling a spider's web. In an unpublished Mexican MS.,
which has been recently brought to light, the middle of the con
centric circles is painted blue and suggests the idea of a system of
distribution or irrigation, proceeding from a central supply of
water and radiating in all directions. An accentuation of central-
ity is brought into relief in fig. 28, no. 6, where the spider's web
is placed in the middle, between the two peaks of a mountain. In
no. 2 a small quadruple sign, which frequently occurs in the Vienna
Codex, always painted in the colors of the four quarters and
united by a cross-band across the centre (no. 4), also figures be
tween two peaks, above two feet, the significance of which I do
not venture to determine. A remarkable circular disc resembling
the Maya map, and also divided into four parts by cross lines, but
exhibiting footsteps denoting rotation, is represented in the en
trance of a temple, in the Vienna Codex (fig. 28, no. 7). These
figures will be referred to again further on.

Let us now bestow attention upon the names of the Mexican
capital and first note that the edifice of the Great Temple, in which
the Cihuacoatl performed an annual ceremony already mentioned,
was called tlal-xic-t-o, literally u in the navel of the earth or land''
(from tlalli = earth, land or country, xictli = navel and co = in)
(Sahagun, book n, appendix). Besides this edifice there was, in
the middle of the lagoon of Chalco, an island, which, to this day,
bears the name of Xico = in the navel or centre. This indicates
the curious circumstance that the edifice and island had apparently
been regarded as forming " ideal centres," and shows that the name
of Mexico itself may have been associated with the same concep
tion being, as it was, the central seat of government. Gomara
states that "' the city was divided into two halves or parts, one
named Tlal-telolco = small island (literally, ' in the earth-mound')
52G

AMKKK AN CIVILIZATIONS. 91

and the other named Mexico, which means 'something which flows,' ':
(Histoirc Generalle des Indes, Paris, 1634, chap. 38). The Na-
huatl word alluded to can be no other than the verb memeya which,
according to Molina, signifies "water, or something liquid which
issues or flows in many directions." I have already pointed out
that the Maya words to express water which rises and overflows,
high tide and, by extension, abundance and plenty, are tnl, tulnah
and, finally, tulaau, past participle of tul. If the particle a me"
conveyed the above idea, its combination with xico would cause
the name Mexico to be replete with significance and to mean '• the
figurative centre whence all maintenance proceeded and flowed in
all directions, throughout the land."

The Borgian Codex furnishes representations of identical mean
ing. On page 4 a human body, the centre of which forms a large
red disc, is stretched across the double tan-shaped tlachtli which
obviously represents the four quarters, being painted with their
four symbolic colors. It is particularly noteworthy that the limbs
of the central figure are represented as wearing the green skin of
a lizard, while its face is enclosed in the open jaws of the reptile.
It should also be noted here that whilst the Xahuatl names are
cuetz-paliu and topitzin, the Maya term for lizard is inech oi1 ix-
mech. On the same page a similar, but smaller, figure is depicted
on a background representing the nocturnal heaven. On the fol
lowing page the figure of a dead woman is stretched on a red disc
whilst a priest is drilling the fire-stick into a circular symbol, with
four balls, which is the well-known symbol for chalchiuitl = jade. .
As the name of the female water goddess is Chalchiutlycue, this
detail is significant and will be referred to later on. It is note
worthy that on both pages 5 and 6 the performance of the above
rite is accompanied by the image of the goddess of the earth and
underworld, represented with a death's head, and with her hair
strewn with stars. Her body is that of a green lizard, and she
carries ears and blossoms of maize and holds a blue garment on
which the chalchihuitl symbol figures.

In connection with representatives of the human form out
stretched in sacrifice, on whose body the rite of kindling the sacred
fire or of extracting the heart is being performed, it seems evident
that, under the dominion of the fundamental ideas I have been
discussing, the native sages regarded and utilized the human form
as an image of the Middle and Four Quarters. It is well known

527

92 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

that the number 20 was termed " one count" and connected with
the number of fingers and toes, distributed equally on his four
extremities. The human victim thus formed a living swastika or
cross and became not only the consecrated image of the supreme,
creative, central divinity who controlled the Four Quarters, but also
an image of the central government with its supreme ruler ; whilst
the four chiefs of the Quarters were symbolized by the four limbs.
Each of these terminated in a symbolized group consisting of a
hand, maitl, with a thumb (= touey'mapilli or vei mapilli, literally,
the great finger, or our great finger) and four fingers (mapilli) ; or
of a great toe, touei xopil or topec-xopil (literally, our great toe,
or our lord toe) and of four toes = xopilli.

The above association of ideas was doubtlessly accentuated by
the fact that the word pilli means a nobleman, a chieftain; thence

FIG. 29.

he terms pilconetl = the son of a nobleman and pilhua = he who
has sons (pil in this case meaning son and hua = possessor of).
This latter fact could have been very aptly conveyed in the picture-
writings by employing fingers to express the sound "pilli." The
number of sons a chieftain had could thus be easily expressed by
his exhibiting a corresponding number of fingers. I shall revert to
this possibility presently, and now referring to fig. 29, no. 2, direct
attention to the obvious intention to express the idea that the fire
produced was distributed to the four quarters by means of the
figures, painted in symbolical colors, three of which are visible.
Another picture in the same Codex represents four similar figures
springing towards the cardinal points from a source or fountain of
528

AMKIUCAN riVILIZATION'S. 93

water, whilst a priest above a triangular cloak1 holds a pair of
weapons (?) in his hands (fig. 29, no 1). If carefully studied,
these groups seem to corroborate the derivation of the name Mex
ico, given above. What is more, the first group affords an explana
tion of the meaning and purpose of three strange recumbent stone
figures bearing circular vessels, which have been respectively found
in Mexico, Tlaxcala and Chichen-Itza and are now preserved at the
National Museum in Mexico. They furnish the most convincing
proof that an identical cult and symbolism had existed in these
widely-separated localities. The conclusion I have previously ex
pressed, that an actual connection had been established between
Chichen-ltza and Mexico by the Maya high priest Kukulcan, or
Quetzalcoatl, is thus corroborated by undeniable evidence, which
will be supplemented later on.

The three monoliths have been described and illustrated in the
Anales del Museo Nacional, Mexico, vol. 1, p. 270, by the late
Seiior Jesus Sanchez, and are here reproduced. The statue ex
humed at Chichen-Itza by Dr. Le Plongeon (pi. iv, fig. 1)
closely resembles that found at Tlaxcalla in Mexico (pi. \u,i
fig. 2). Dr. Brinton, who erroneously describes the Chichen-Itza
statue as representing " a sleeping god," points out the extremely
important fact that there was a divinity worshipped in Yucatan
called Cum-ahau, " the lord of the vase," who is designated in
a MvS. dictionary as " Lucifer (the lord of the underworld) the
principal native divinity." He adds there is good ground to sup
pose that this lord of the vase . . . was the god of fertility
common to the Maya and Mexican cult (Hero-Myths, p. 165).
Considering that the great market-place in the capital was actually
the centre to which the entire product of the land was periodically
carried from its remotest confines, was there classified, exchanged
or distributed far and wide, the comparison to a central flowing
source of maintenance was most appropriate.

That some particular spot in or near the city should have grad
ually assumed importance and sanctity as marking the exact centre
of the metropolis, i. e., of the integral whole of the Mexican

1 Short triangular capes are worn to this day by the Mexican women, and are called
queehquemitl = shoulder capes. It is curious to find in Molina's dictionary, the fol
lowing: tzimpitzauac — something figured, which is wide above and pointed below,
and tzimmanqui = something figured which is pointed above and wide below, words
which seem to indicate that they refer to triangles and that these had different mean
ings according to position.

P. M. PAPERS I ;U 529

P'apers.

Vol. I, No. 7, PI. IV.

\ i

<-— 7 ?

AMKRK AN CIVILIZATIONS. 9O

''empire " is but natural and it is not surprising to find that solemn
rites were performed on this spot. In one of the chronicles to
which I shall revert, it is stated that the New Fire was at times
kindled on the prostrate body of a slave, and this curious state
ment is corroborated by a picture in the Borgian Codex, showing
:» priest producing lire from a circular vessel placed on the body
of a victim beneath whom a face enclosed in the open jaws of a
reptile, is visible (fig. 29).

Dr. Le Plongeon, to whom much credit is due for its discovery,
identified the Chichen-Itza statue, for reasons not fully explained,
as a portrait of Chac-Mool, or Lord Tiger, and relates that it was
found at a depth of eight metres, not far from the base of the
Great Pyramid Temple. A statue of a standing tiger, with a hu
man head and a shallow depression in its back, was also found
near the same spot. I have seen other sculptured figures of human
beings holding a vase, as at the hacienda near Xochicalco, Mexico,
and of tigers, with circular depressions on their bucks, and hope
to be able to reproduce their photographs on another occasion.

The most elaborately sculptured recumbent statue is undoubt
edly that which was found in or near the city of Mexico (pi. iv,
fig. 3). The under surface of its base (pi. iv, fig. f>) is entirely
covered with zigzag water lines and representations of roots
of plants, figured as in the Codices ; shells, one kind of which is
the well-known symbol of parturition, and frogs which are inti
mately associated with water symbolism. On the hair of the statue
a flower-like ornament is carved (pi. iv, fig. 4) in connection with
which it should be noted that the Nahuatl for flower is xochitl,
pronounced hoochitl, resembling the Maya hooch = vase. The small
groups of five dots forming a border around the circular vessel
are noteworthy, as they are likewise sculptured on the calendar-
stone. The characteristic scrolls about the eyes of the figure show
that it personates tlaloc, or earth-wine. The fertility of the earth,
caused by rain, is symbolized by the wreath of ears of corn and
reeds (Nahuatl, tollin) which is sculptured around the base of this,
one of the most remarkable of ancient American monuments.

Seiior Sanchez cites Torquemada (Monarquia Indiana, vol. n,
p. 52) as the only authority who mentions a recumbent image or
idol and relates that, u in the city of Tula, there was preserved in
the great temple, an image of (^uetzalcoatl ... he was fig
ured as lying down, as though going to sleep . . . Out of

531

96 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

reverence the image was covered with mantles or cloths
They said that when sterile women made offerings or sacrifices to
the god Quetzalcoatl, he immediately caused them to become preg
nant . . ." He was the god of the Winds which he sent to
sweep or clear the way for the tlaloques — •' the earth-wine "
gods.

Senor Sanchez also quotes Gama, who, basing himself upon
Torquemada's authority, maintains that Tezcatzon-catl, the prin
cipal rain or octli-god, was figured 'as lying in an intoxicated con
dition, holding a vase of pulque in his hands. To the above data
1 add the description by Bernal Dmz, of a " figure in sculpture"
he saw on the summit of the great temple of Mexico: " It was
half man and half lizard (lagarto), was encrusted with precious
stones and one-half of it was covered with cloths. They said that
half of it wns full of all the kinds of seeds that were produced in
the entire land, and told [me] that it was the god of sown land,
of seeds and fruits. I do not remember his name . . ." (His-
toria Verdadera, p. 71). It may be as well to note, that the Na-
huatl names for lizard, cuetz-palin and topitzin, approximately
convey the sound of the first syllables of the name of the culture-
hero Quetzalcoatl, and of the title " topiltzin " bestowed upon
him. It must, of course, remain a matter of conjecture whether
the lizard was possibly employed in the above case as a picto-
graph, to express the sound of its name. One thing seems cer
tain, that the Tula image of Quetzalcoatl, to which divinity barren
women directed their invocations, and the statue described by
Bernal Diaz as that " of the god of seeds, fruits and cultivated
land," were undoubtedly analogous to the sculptured recumbent
figure found in Mexico, and exhibiting the symbols of Tlaloc, or
earth-wine, of maize, and of parturition. Bernal Diaz further
relates that the said image was kept on the uppermost terrace of
the Great Temple, in one of five kt concavities surrounded by bar-
bacans or low walls the wood-work of which was very richly
carved" (op. et Joe. cit*).

The inference to be drawn from the foregoing data is that the
Mexicans and the Mayas habitually kept, on the summit of their
principal temple, in their centres of government, a statue holding
a circular vessel and figuratively representing the " navel or centre
of the land." The group of ideas already traced in the Maya
ho = capital, hour— pyramid, ho-och = vessel, o-och =: mainte-
532

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 97

nance, ho = 5, thus proves to be completely carried out, for, oil this
consecrated spot, which emblematized the source whence all life
proceeded, sacred emblematic rites were performed, the purpose of
which wns to typify the union, in the centre, of the four elements
requisite for the productiveness of the earth.

The ground plan of the Caracol or Round Temple of Chichen-
Itza, which was built, according to tradition, by the high priest
Quetzalcoatl, carries out the idea of the middle and of the four
quarters in so obvious a manner that it may safely be assumed
that it represented the supposed centre of a dominion (fig. 30).
Referring the reader to the interesting de
scription of this remarkable edifice in Mr.
William Holmes' valuable work already
cited, I note that round temples, dedicated
to Quetzalcoatl, are recorded to have also
existed in Mexico. It seems probable that,
at certain festivals, the living representa
tives of the Above and Below performed

certain sacred rites on the summit of one
FIG. 30.

of these circular edifices. It is obvious

that such rites could only have been fitly performed by the cooper
ation of both twin rulers or Quequetzalcoas, each of whom person
ified two elements. The appropriate season for such rites would be
that when the necessity of insuring a successful harvest would
seem most urgent. It is a recorded fact that the most solemn fes
tivals of the year were held between the vernal equinox, on which
date the ritual year began, and the fall of the first rain which usu
ally occurs about the middle of May. It is extremely significant
that at this precise period the festival toxcatl took place (cf. Maya
thoaxolor thoxol = distribution, giving each one a little, and o-och
= food or maintenance) during which Tezcatlipoca and Iluitz-
ilopochtli were jointly honored. During this festival the " sacred
dough," named tzoalli, was a prominent feature of the ritual and it
was undoubtedly associated with the idea of the life-giving union
of the four elements, the Above and Below, or the male and female
principles.

It can, moreover, be directly connected with the recumbent stat
ues representing the centre ; for, whilst Bernal Diaz recorded that
the statue on the summit of the Great Temple held a collection of
all the seeds of the land, Cortes, in his descriptive letter, gives us

533

98 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

an important detail which evidently applied to the identical statue.
He relates that u the bodies of the idols are made of a dough con
sisting of all the kinds of seeds and vegetables that these people
ate. These are ground, mixed with each other and then moistened
with the blood of the hearts of human victims . . ." (op. eft.
p. 105). Sahagun relates that an image of the earth goddess,
under the title of Seven-serpents or twins, was made of this sacred
dough and that offerings of all kinds of maize, beans, etc., were
made before it " because she is the author and giver of all these
things which sustain the life of the people" (book n, 4). It is
well known that the dough images were broken into small pieces
and these were distributed to the priests and people, who partook
of the substance after having prepared themselves by fasting, for
the sacred rite. I draw attention to the fact that the above sacred
substance is but the natural outcome of the primitive notion already
mentioned, which led the hunters to spill blood upon the earth, to
obtain its increased fruitfulness. An insight having been thus ob
tained of the origin of blood sacrifices in ancient America, it is
possible to understand the meaning of certain representations show
ing the performance of ritual blood-offerings.

On the well-known bas-relief preserved in the National Mu
seum of Mexico, and illustrated in the Anales (vol. i, p. G3), the
two historical rulers of ancient Mexico, who figure as Quequet-
zalcoas, or divine twins, in exactly the same costume, are sculp
tured with blood flowing from their shins and in the act of piercing
their ears with a sharp bone instrument. Two streams of blood
descend from these and meet before falling into the open jaws
figured beneath an altar, on which two conventionalized flowers
appear. The two rows of teeth = tlantli, convey the sound of
the affix tlan = land of, or tlalli z= earth. But the most remark
able and striking instance of the group of ideas we have been
studying is found on p. 62 of the Borgian Codex. On a back
ground formed by a pool of water, there is a group which repre
sents the Dearth-mother" lying on a band of lizard-skin, with
two maize plants issuing from her body and growing into a large
two-branched tree, in the centre of which is a flint-knife or tec-
patl. A bird stands on its summit and its branches terminate in
maize plants. Its growth is being furthered by the two streams
of blood which proceed from two human figures, standing at each
side of the tree. One is painted black and evidently represents
534

AMERICAN" CIVILIZATIONS. 9i)

the Lord of the Below ; the other is painted blue-green and repre
sents the Lord of the Above. The blood-sacrifice they are jointly
offering is that mentioned in the " Lyfe of the Indians," as per
formed in order to obtain generation. Unquestionably this sym
bolical group would have been equally intelligible to Mayas or
Mexicans, since the ideas it expressed were held in common by
both people.

Before proceeding further it is necessary to state that after the
native philosophers had, for an indefinite period of time, been sat
isfied with the artificial division of all things into four quarters,
corresponding to the cardinal points and elements, the idea of the
Above and Below gradually grew in importance, whilst prolonged
thought and observation disclosed that the above classification de
manded revision. On carefully investigating the attributes of the
principal ancient Mexican deities or personifications of the ele
ments we see that the native thinkers had found themselves obliged
to make a distinction between the different forms of each element,
having realized, for instance, that water not only fell to earth from
the heaven, but also issued from the depths of the earth in the
form of springs or fountains, and formed rivers and lakes. The
final conclusions they reached in this instance are best explained
by the fact that the name of the god Tlaloc means earth-wine or
rain only, and that his sister " Chalchiuhtlycue " appears as the
personification of wells, springs, rivers and lakes. It is evident
that the classification of the ocean or sea must have given rise to
much serious thought. We know how the problem was solved by
the fact that the Nahuatl name for the ocean is " ilhuica-atl " =
heaven-water. Accordingly, the rain and the ocean pertained to
the heaven, the Above and male principle, whilst the Avells, springs,
rivers, etc., belonged to the earth, the Below, the female principle.

As in this case, so it was with the other elements, each of which
was finally personified by a nude deity and his female counterpart,
which, in some cases, tended to represent its distinctive and benefi
cent properties. As these deities are separately treated in my
commentary of the " Lyfe of the Indians" and lack of space for
bids my discussing them here, I shall but mention that the ulti
mate native systeinatization of the elements, each of which was
thought of as an attribute only of supreme and central -divinity,
corresponds exactly to that held by the Zufiis of to-day and set
forth in the following account given by Mr. Frank II. Cushing and

100

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

quoted in Dr. Brinton's " Native Calendar of Central America
and Mexico" (p. 8). In quoting it 1 draw special attention to the
numerical divisions given, as this is absolutely essential for the
understanding of the statements I shall make, further on, concern
ing the origin of the native Calendar-systems.

" In the ceremonies of the Zunis the complete terrestrial sphere
is symbolized by pointing or blowing the smoke to the four cardi
nal points, to the zenith and nadir, the individual himself making
the seventh number. When the celestial is also symbolized, only
the six directions are added to this seven, because the individual
remains the same, so that the number typifying the universe,
terrestrial and celestial, becomes 13. When, on the other hand,
in their ceremonies, the rite requires the ofliciant to typify the

supra- and intra-terrestrial spheres, that is, the upper and lower
worlds [the Above and the Below], the same number 13 results,
as it is held that in each the sun stands for the individual, being
in turn the day sun and night sun, the light and dark sun, but
ever the same and therefore counts but once."

After having gained this knowledge of native speculative phil
osophy, let us penetrate still further into their modes of thinking
by studying, first of all, a series of symbols of the earth-mother
taken from one of the most valuable of Mexican MSS., the Vienna
Codex (iig. 31). In these the idea of the vase, bowl or receptacle
and of the serpent predominates. It is instructive of native thought
to find the vase represented as containing a child (no. 1), an agave
plant (no. 7), a fire, denoting warmth (no. 3), a flower (no. 12),
536

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 101

uiid a bunch of hair, the numerical symbol for multiplicity = the
number 400 (no. 5). In no. 2, the hollow between two recurved
peaks conveys the idea of a central vase ; a band with eyes rests
upon the peaks and denotes the heaven. No. 4 shows a double
vase, enclosed in a similar representation of the nocturnal heaven
— the idea to be conveyed being evidently that of a receptacle
hidden in darkness. No. 9 displays an open jaw, two claws, a
human heart and a stream of blood issuing from it. Nos. 10 and
1 1 present different shapes of the serpent's jaw, the symbol of
the earth.

The double-headed serpent forming a vase containing a flower
(no. 12) is particularly interesting because the flower = xoch-itl
in Nahnatl, seems to suggest an intentional likeness to the Maya
word for " vase, vessel or cup in general," ho-och (Arte de la
lengua Maya, Fray Pedro Beltran de Santa Rosa, ed. Espinosa,
Merida, 1859) as well as hoch or o-och = " food and maintenance."
The symbolical vase-like opening in the core of the agave plant,
(no. 8) is such as is made to this day, in order to collect the juice,
which, when fermented, constitutes the sacred wine of the ancient
Mexicans, octli, now better known as pulque.1 As will be shown
the Mexicans considered this as " the drink of life." Its use was
rigidly regulated and supervised by the u octli-lords " or " rain-
priests'' who distributed it at certain dances, in order to induce a
state of mild intoxication amongst the participants.

As in the case of the Zunis and Tarahumari Indians of the present
day, referred to by W J McGee, in his valuable and instructive
article on "'The beginning of Marriage" (the American Anthro
pologist, vol. ix, no. 11, p. 371), "certain ceremonials typifying
the fecundity of the earth and of the leading people thereof " were
performed by the ancient Mexicans. These public ceremonials had
also been " apparently developed to the end that the tribes and
peoples might be encouraged to increase and multiply and possess
the fecund earth." They took place at the period of the year
when the heaven and earth were also supposed to unite, /. ^., at the
beginning of the rainy season. During this the ordinary out-door
occupations of the agriculturist and hunter were forcibly interrupted
and the regular and periodical transportations of produce and trib-

1 The production of this drink was limited to the area in which the agave plant
could be cultivated. As set forth in my commentary on the " Lyfe of the Indians,"
the natives employed many other kinds of fermented liquors, made from different
fruits and plants.

537

102 KEY-NOTE OF ANY TENT

ate to the capital became impossible, owing to torrential rain,
swollen rivers and impassable roads. This period of enforced
shelter and confinement indoors seems to have become the defi
nite mating season of the aborigines. At the same time the union
of the sexes had obviously assumed a sort of consecration since
it was intimately associated with the cosmical, philosophical and
religious ideas and coincided with what was regarded as the annual
union of the elements or of the Above and Below, the heaven and
earth. ^

At that period of its history, when the Aztec race was jointly
governed by a priest, personifying the heaven and a priestess,
"• his wife and sister," who personified the earth, some form of
sacred marriage rite must have been annually performed. The
consecrated character of their union must have naturally caused
their offspring to be regarded as of a holy and almost divine ori
gin. It is easy to realize, therefore, how, in ancient Mexico, the
artificial idea of '•' superior birth" came into existence, how a fam
ily or caste of rulers gradually developed, the members of which
were entitled l* teotl" — divine, whilst the men were regarded as
k* the sons of Heaven" and the women " the daughters of Earth."
It is obvious from this that the periodical union of the sexes, ac
companied as it was, by sacred dances and the distribution of
sacred wine, must have gradually assumed a semi-religious char
acter, whilst the ritual nuptials of the " divine " rulers, typifying,
as it obviously did, the grand and impressive phenomenon of the
rainy season, must have caused this marriage to assume the char
acter of a hallowed rite and surrounded it with the most elevated
and intense religious sentiments of which the native mind was
capable.

After this recognition of the diverging influences which guided
the development of primitive marriage institutions, we will return
to the rain-priests or u octli-lords," of whom it is repeatedly stated
that there were four hundred, a number corresponding to an assign
ment of 100 or 5X^0 to each of the four provinces or divisions
of the commonwealth. Their emblem was the sacred vase or re
ceptacle and in the " Lyfe of the Indians " this will be seen figured
on their mantas and shields (no. 6«). A small gold plate, of
the same shape, is represented as worn by these " lords," attached
to the nose (no. 6fr) ; and, in the same MS., the symbolical orna
ment is also carried by the u sister of Tlaloc." It was evidently
538

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

103

worn, like similar ornaments in other countries, hanging- from the
septum of the nose, and seems to have indicated a consecration of
the breath as the substance of life. As an inference, merely based
on an insight gained into the native modes of thought, I suggest
that the explanation for the adoption of this ornament may have
been the religious idea that the breath of life, dividing itself as it
issues through the nostrils and uniting when inhaled, appeared to
the native thinkers as a marvellous illustration of unity and dual
ity, both ideas having constantly been present in their minds.

In the Vienna Codex there is a remarkable picture of the earth-
vase resting on a slab with five divisions. A profusion of puffs or
breaths of air or vapor issue from it and, branching off in two di
rections, form what is like the conventional tree of life, also met
with in Maya bas-reliefs and documents. At the extremities of
the branches which turn downwards, a serpent's eye is visible and

a forked-tongue issues above the middle (fig. 32, no. 1). The in
tention to express an exuberant vitality and growth issuing from
the symbolical vase in the centre of the earth, seems obvious.
This idea is still more clearly conveyed, however, in two symbolic
pictures on pp. 21 and 29 of the Codex Borgia, which are repro
duced as nos. 1 and 4 in fig. 1 of this publication. The first rep
resents the vase overflowing with water and containing a flint- knife,
the generator of the vital spark. The central group is surrounded
by water and by sun-rays and obviously symbolizes the union of
air, light and water, constituting the Above, with the flint the em
blem of the earth-mother and of Tezcatlipoca, the lord of the
Under-world. Fig. 1. no. 4, represents the vase overflowing with
a liquid, which is designated as being the sacred octli or earth-wine
by the presence of the rabbit, which expresses the sound of its

539

104: KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

name = tochtli. This rebus is surrounded by the nocturnal heaven
strewn with stars and the reference to the union of rain or earth-
wine with earth and darkness is evident. It has been generally
assumed that these images of the vase, containing the rabbit or
flint-knife, represented the moon. As the latter was intimately
associated with the cult of night, of the earth-mother and ideas of
growth, it is not impossible that by an extension of symbolism,
this was the case, but only in the same way as the sun was the
emblem of the cult of the Above. On the other hand the native
drawings of the moon in Sahagun's Academia MS. represent it as
a crescent with a human profile on the inner side, and in a speci
men preserved at the Trocadero Museum, Paris, it is similarly
carved in rock crystal.

Before proceeding to investigate the symbol further, I would
point out the general resemblance of the vase, especially as a con
ventionalized serpent's jaw, to the u horse-shoe " shape of the
problematical stone " yokes " which have been so thoroughly stud
ied by Dr. Hermann Strebel of Hamburg (Studien ueber Stein-
joche aus Mexico und Mittel-AmeriUa. Internationales Archiv,
bd. in, 1890). Mr. Francis Parry has advanced a view concern
ing the meaning of these curious "sacred stones."1 This is some
what corroborated, as will be shown, by my recent studies, which
seem to indicate pretty clearly that these symbolical objects per
tained to the cult of the earth-mother. A fact of unquestionable
importance, cited by Mr. Parry, is the certified existence and use,
amongst southern Calif ornian Indians of the present day, of a
rudely worked stone of the same shape, in a native religious rite.
The owner of one of these stones, Mr. Horatio Rust, a pioneer
resident of Pasadena, southern California, exhibited it in the An
thropological Section of the World's Columbian Exposition, at
Chicago, 1893, and informed me how he had observed that, occa
sionally, a native assembly took place at a certain spot on a moun
tain side, during which invocations and offerings were made. He
ascertained that the ceremony on one occasion was the equivalent
of the puberty-dances of similar California tribes. Having visited
and examined the spot after one of these celebrations, in which
six young girls, decorated with garlands of flowers, were the chief
participants, he found the " sacred stone," concealed and sur-

1 The snored symbols and numbers of Aboriginal America in Ancient and Modern
times. (Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, no. 2, 1894.)

540

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 105

rouudeoj by offerings of corn, meal and pieces of money. The
version published by Mr. Parry is slightly different to this account,
which was given me by Mr. Rust himself.

In order fully to appreciate the close analogy between the Cali-
fornian ceremonial offering of maize and meal to the emblematic
stone and the ancient Mexican ritual offerings of seeds to an idol,
holding a bowl or vase, it is necessary to read the following data.
At the same time I would like to mention here that amongst the
Hupa Indians of California, who have been termed " the Romans
of Northern California by reason of their valour and far reaching
dominions," we find that "• flakes or knives of obsidian or jasper,
sometimes measuring 15 inches or more in length, are employed
for sacred purposes and are carried aloft in the hand in certain
ceremonial dances, wrapped with skin or cloth. Such knives are
esteemed so sacred that the Indians would on no account part with
them, and Mr. Stephen Powers found that they could not be pur
chased at any price."1

It is scarcely necessary to recall here that the flint-knife was a
well-known ancient Mexican emblem, nor to point out the impor
tance of the conclusion that two well-defined symbols which played
an important role in the Mexican and Mayan cult of the Below and
of the Earth-mother, are actually found in use amongst California)!
Indians at the present day.

A whole flood of light is thrown upon native symbolism, how
ever, by the information obtained from the Zuiii Indians by Mr.
F. H. Gushing. The following passage, from their Creation myth,
affords the most positive confirmation of the foregoing conclusion,
that the bowl or vase was the native emblem of the earth-mother.
The Zuni speaker said : " Is not the bowl the emblem of the
Earth, our Mother? For from her we draw both food and drink,
just as the babe draws nourishment from the breast of its mother.

And round, as is the rim of the bowl, so is the horizon "-

Interesting as this explanation of the native symbolism undoubt
edly is, it becomes most important when its full significance is
realized and we recognize that originally earthenware bowls them
selves were looked upon as sacred emblems formed indeed out
of the material of the earth itself. This fact places the invention

1 Tribes of California, Stephen Powers. Contributions to North American Ethnol
ogy. Washington, 1877. vol. ill, p. 71).

2 Fourth Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, p. 51S. Washington.

541

106 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

and manufacture of earthen vessels in tin entirely new light and
enables us to conjecture and understand why, quite apart from their
utility, so much care and decoration were lavished upon them and
why, indeed, they were constantly buried with the dead. They
obviously served as sacred emblems of the earth-mother, to whose
care the dead body was confided, and originally the intention prob
ably was to propitiate her by the beauty of the sacred vessels,
which, to be symbolical of her bounty, necessarily contained food
and drink.

Without pausing to discuss how easily this custom would have
gradually given birth to the belief that the food and drink thus
offered were intended for the use of the dead body itself, or its soul,
I would point out that, in the absence of clay vessels, a stone,
rough or worked, would have also served as an appropriate em
blem of the earth-mother, being as it were, of her own substance.
It is well known that in ancient Mexico this custom prevailed.
There we also find that the bowl- or vase-shaped grave was em
ployed, with a deeply religious and symbolical meaning. This is
clearly revealed by a native drawing in the " Lyfe of the Indians,"
representing a native burial. The deceased, represented by his skull
only, has been placed in a deep hole, figured as a large inverted
horse-shoe, painted brown and covered with small '' horse-shoe "
marks. The same religious symbolism which led to the adoption of
a definite form of sepulchre, typifying the element earth, would evi
dently account for the adoption for burial purposes, of large clay
vessels into which the remains of the dead were placed. In some
localities these clay burial urns were, as we know, made large
enough to contain the dead bodv itself. The difficulty of manu
facturing these would naturally have led to the general adoption of
cremation, simply as a means of reducing the remains so that they
could repose in the sacred image of the earth. Cremation would,
moreover, be a rite full of meaning since, to the native mind,
earth was inseparable from its twin element (ire, and both together
constituted the "Below."

It is significant to find, however, that the ashes of Montezum.i's
predecessors had not been finally consigned to the earth. In strict
accordance with their association with the Heaven and Above,
their remains were never allowed to come in contact with the earth,
but were usually preserved inside of a hollow wooden effigy of the
deceased, which was dressed in his insignia and placed in a high
542

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 107

tower, built for the express purpose. Cortes states that there were
ki forty very high towers" iu the enclosure of the Great Temple of
Mexico anil that " all of these were sepulchres of the lords" (Hi ^toria
cle Nueva-Esparia, eel. Lorenzana, pp. 105 and 10G). Whilst it is
evident that the remains of all lords and priests of heaven should
thus be assigned a place of rest high above the earth, it is equally
intelligible that the bodies of the lords and priests of the Below
and all women should be consigned to the interior of the earth and
by preference in caves. The Codex Fejervary contains an inter
esting picture of the tied-up body of a woman, recognizable as
such from the head-dress and her instrument of labor, the metlatl,
on which the maize is ground. The mummy rests inside of a flat
ettigy of a serpent's head, which seems to be carved in wood or
stone and closely resembles fig. 31, no. 11. It is worth consider
ing whether the carved stone-yokes may not have served in con
nection with the funeral rites of the consorts of rulers or high
priestesses or priests of the Below.

If investigations of the vase or earth symbols are extended to
countries lying south of Mexico, traces of the existence of an
analogous cult are observable. There undoubtedly exists a strik
ing resemblance between the form of the characteristic and pecu
liar stone •' seats " which have been found in such numbers in
Ecuador, to the vase, iig. 31, no. 3, for instance. The employ
ment of these symbolical stones as a consecrated central altar or,
possibly, as the throne of the living representative of the earth-
mother, would have harmonized with the native ideas which have
been traced on the preceding pages.

It was also extremely interesting to me to find the identical symbol
in the Maya day-sign Caban, which has been identified by Dr.
Schellhas and Geheimrath Forstemann as a symbol of the earth
and is figured on p. 99 of Dr. Brinton's Primer of Ma}Tan Hiero
glyphics. In the sign Caban, the horse-shoe mark is accompanied
by a series of dots which seem to indicate liquid trickling from the
receptacle and permeating the soil, an idea which is strictly analo
gous to the much more elaborate Mexican images of the vase full
of rain or k' earth-wine," fig. 1, nos. 1 and 4, which, in cursive
form, was employed as the emblem of the pulque, or octli lords,
the priests of the earth. It is strikingly significant to find that in
the Maya Codices the drops issuing from the horse-shoe are some
times figured as trickling into the mouths of "divinities" whose

543

108

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

faces also exhibit images of the sacred vase, analogous to that of
the Mexican" octli-lords."

These Maya divinities have been designated by Dr. Schellhas
as go 1 L, whose face is painted black and under whose eye a vase
is painted, a peculiarity termed by Maya authorities " an orna
mented eye " and which may be seen in fig. 33, iv ; (2) as god M,
"a second black god," whose eye is likewise enclosed in a vase and
whose hieroglyph is a vase on a black ground ; and (3) as god C,
of whom I shall subsequently speak in detail. (See Brinton's
Primer, pp. 122 and 124.) In the case of god L, the two horse
shoe marks from which drops are falling into the mouth of the
god, are surmounted by the glyph imix, to which I shall revert.

The horse-shoe mark with drops likewise occurs in the design

FIG. o,°>.

resembling the akbal glyph, which has been interpreted as con
nected with akab =: night. It also occurs, in Maya Codices, on
bands exhibiting cross- symbols, sometimes in an inverted position
and hanging from above and sometimes standing on two of the
three mounds which are a feature of these interesting glyphs.
Postponing a detailed discussion of these, I will but emphasize
here that, in the Maya Codices the vase, cursively drawn as a
" horse-shoe " mark, is proved to be intimately connected with the
ideas of liquid falling from above, and constituting the drink of
divinities and symbols associated with the sacred vase, night and
darkness, all attributes of the Below. We shall next demonstrate
that it was alternately placed, on the Maya Caban glyph, with
a curious sign consisting of a pea-shaped black dot, to which a
curved and wavy line is attached. This is always figured as issu-
544

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 109

ing from above the clot, then extending downwards and half around
it and terminating in a descending, undulating line.

I submit the following to the consideration of Maya specialists :
It seems to me that this sign presents an extremely realistic draw
ing of the seed of a monocotyledouous plant, such as the maize or
Indian corn, in its first stage of germination, when the radicle,
having issued from the apex, turns downwards in characteristic
fashion and penetrates into the earth. Besides the realism of the
native drawing there can be no doubt that the image of a sprouting
maize-seed is the most expressive and appropriate accompaniment
to the symbol of fertilizing rain, on an earth-symbol, and I am
unable to understand how Drs. Cyrus Thomas, Seler, Schellhas
and Brinton could have overlooked the realism in this image of a
sprouting seed, and concluded that it was a portrayal of " fer
mented liquor trickling downward," a " nose-ornament," or a
" twisted lock of hair," " a cork-screw curl." The latter inter
pretation was made by Dr. Schellhas because he found the sign in
connection with female figures in the Codices, which undoubtedly
is a fact of extreme interest, as it furnishes a valuable proof that
the Mayas associated the earth with the female principle.

Dr. Schellhas, however, records his observation that the sign
caban occurs as a symbol of fruit-bearing earth, in the Codex
Troano, as it is figured with leaves of maize (p. 33) or with climb
ing plants issuing from it and winding themselves around a pole
(p. 32). Geheimrath Forstemann connects the day-name caban
with u cab " to which Perez, in his dictionary, attaches the meaning
of uearth, world and soil" (DieTages gotter der Mayas. Globus,
vol. LXXIII, rib. 9) and adds that the hieroglyph decidedly desig
nates the earth. At the same time he interprets what I regard as
the maize-grain and its radicle, as possibly representing a bird in
its flight upwards, and he merely describes the accompanying in
verted horse-shoe with dots, without attaching any positive mean
ing to it. It must be added that Dr. Forstemann himself states
that he is not satisfied with his own interpretation of these two
symbols, the first of wrhich, the seed and radicle, likewise occurs
in the day-sign cib, to which I shall recur.

If any doubt remains as to the signification of the day-sign cab,
I think it will be dispelled when it is shown that the name cab, or
caban is obviously related to the adjective, adverb and preposition
cabal or cablil, which signifies low, below, on the earth, in, beneath
p. M. PAPEKS i 35 545

110 KKY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

and under. The frequent association of the cab glyph with the
image of a bee, as in the Codex Troano, is partially explained by
the fact that the Maya word for honey is cab, for honey-bee is
yikil-cab. It affords at all events, an instance, in Maya hiero
glyphic writing, of a method of duplicating the sound of a word
analogous to that which I detected in Mexican pictography, and
named complementary signs in my communication on the sub
ject, published as an appendix to my essay on Ancient Mexican
Shields (Internationales Archiv fi'ir, Ethnographic, Ley den, 1892).
On the other hand the day name and sign cib, on which the sprout
ing grain is also figured, seems to be related to the verb cibahr=to
will, to occur, to happen, to take place. The allusion contained
in both glyphs is obviously the same and signifies, in the first
place, the hidden process of germination which takes place under
the surface of the soil, and is associated with the idea of the female
principle in Nature.

The seed and radicle, horse-shoe and rain-drops, are also distin
guishable on a vessel on page 35 of the Dresden Codex and on a
small three-legged vase, which is figured by Doctor Brinton (Primer,
118) as the day-sign ch'en. This vase is surmounted by two in
curving projections and offers a close analogy to a sacred vase with
superstructure (fig. 33, n) from which projects a peculiar open
and double receptacle, into which a priest is sowing small seeds.
The interior of this bowl is represented as hollow, and containing
what I shall show further on to be a native symbol for Earth :
three little mounds. On another bowl, in front of this one, a bird
is sitting and presumably hatching. In another portion of the
same MS. a similar bowl is figured containing three seed fruits and
capsules, resembling pomegranates or poppy-heads (fig. 33, in).

The tree next to which the first two symbolical bowls are placed
deserves to be carefully studied, for the trunk is crowned by
four stems bearing single leaves and is encircled by a serpent, can,
the homonym for the numeral four = kan. A fringed mantle and
a scroll hang from the coils of the serpent's body, two footsteps
are painted on the scroll and, pointing downwards, express "de
scent," as do also the falling drops of liquid on the stems of the
tree which grows from a peculiar glyph with subdivisions, which
has points of resemblance with the glyph under the footless divin
ity (fig. 33, i). An obsidian mirror, with cross bars, is painted
in front of the latter, which displays the same descending foot-
546

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. Ill

steps ou its mantle. The head and eyes of a snail, the symbol of
parturition, are above its face and a wreath of flowers crowns its
head. Tedious as such a minute analysis may seem, it is never
theless necessary, in order to gain a perception of the extent to
which symbolism was practised in the picture writings found in the
Maya MSS., accompanied by the cursive calculiform glyphs. It
seems that, in no. n, we have a presentation of the Maya " tree
of life," and that scrolls, on which descending footsteps are de
picted, are intended to convey the meaning that life is descending
from Above into the egg and seeds by virtue or. decree of the celes
tial power. It should be noted here that the phenomenon of a
living bird issuing from the hard and inanimate egg-shell had made
as deep an impression upon the ancient philosophers in Mexico as
elsewhere, and that the power " to form the chicken in the shell "
was deemed one of the most marvellous attributes of " the divine
Moulder or Former," as is further set forth in the " Lyfe of the
Indians."

The foregoing illustrations establish, at all events, that the
Mayas, like the Mexicans, associated the sacred vase with seeds
and germination. The vase, illustrated by Doctor Brinton, exhibits
the seed and radicle ; and this is also found on the symbol for
earth, which, in the Cortesian Codex, is associated with the image
of a serpent, possibly the equivalent of the Mexican Cihuacoatl,
or female serpent.

If, after mustering this close array of analogies, we next ex
amine the glyph cib, we find that it exhibits the seed and radicle in
the centre of a square, three sides of which are decorated with what
Doctor Brinton has termed the " potter}' decoration (?)." This con
sists of short lines, such as are employed in Mexican pictography,
in the well-known sign for tlalli, or land, which is usually sur
rounded on three sides by a fringe, presumably symbolizing plants
and grass, a "fringe" of vegetation and verdure. In the glyph cib,
already referred to, I am inclined to see but a cursive rendering of
the same idea, with the seed and radicle in the centre and the
fringed border barely indicated by a few short lines. The same
border is found repeated on three sides of the head of a frequently
recurring personage whom Doctor Schellhas designates as "God
C, of the Ornamented face." In his extremely valuable work, Die
Gottergestalten der Mayahandschriften, this careful investigator
records the various combinations in which this God C occurs in the

547

112 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Codices and impartially weighs the possibilities of its meaning.
Gekeimrath Forstemann has made the important observation that
the figure of God C occurs in combination with the day-sign,
chneu, of the Maya calendar, which coincides with the Mexican
day- sign azomatli = monkey.

I am unable to agree with my venerable friend in identifying
God C, with Polaris. As Doctor Schcllhas rightly observes, the
fact that God C is found in combination with the signs of all the
four quarters disproves an identification with Polaris. What is
more, God C is frequently represented as receiving in his mouth
drops of liquid falling from a cursive vase placed above his head
— a detail which clearly connects him with earth and the u earth-
wine." In the Mexican MSS. we find the monkey intimately
connected with the octli or earth-wine gods as, for instance, in the
" Lyfe of the Indians." I therefore reserve a more detailed discus
sion of this subject for my notes on this MS. and return to the
glyphs caban and kan or can.

Just as it has been shown that the first may signify cabal = the
Below, so it is evident that the second is connected with the prep
osition and adverb canal, signifying u above, on top of, on high."
Dr. Brin ton sees in the kan symbol a presentation of a polished
stone, or shell pendant, or bead, and cites the Maya dictionary of
Motul which gives kan as the name for " beads or stones which
served the Indians as money and neck ornaments." In connection
with this important statement I revert to the carved shell-gorgets
which have been found in the mounds and ancient graves in the
Mississippi valley and exhibit Maya influence. The greater num
ber of these exhibit a carved serpent (which in Maya is kan) in
their centres and this fact affords a clue to the possible origin of
the Maya name for a neck ornament given in the Motul dictionary.
It is undeniable that all evidence unites in proving that the ancient
peoples of the Mississippi valley were in traffic, if not more inti
mately connected, with a Maya-speaking people and came under
the influence of the ideas and symbolism current in Yucatan.

Returning to the employment of the glyph kan in Maya Codices,
for more reasons than I am able to enumerate here, I conclude it
served as an indicative of the Above or Heaven. It is a curious fact
that the Maya word for cord is kaan, whilst the name for sky is caan.
I cannot but think, therefore, that a curved pendant with a serpent
effigy = a kan, worn on a cord = kaan, must have been associated
548

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 113

by the Mayas with the Heaven or sky =z caan, and that this linguis
tic coincidence must have been a strong factor in the development
of the symbolism attached to the glyph can or kan.

An interesting fact, which I shall demonstrate by a large series
of illustration from native Codices in a chapter of my forthcoming
work on the ancient Calendar System, will show that in their
hieratic writings, the ancient Mexican scribes represented the noc
turnal heaven or sky as a circle composed of a cord, to which stars
were attached, whilst the centre of the circle exhibited one or four
stars. In my opinion the origin and explanation of the associa
tion of the cord with stars are clearly traceable to the above men
tioned fact that in the Maya tongue the word for cord, kaan, closely
resembles the sound of the word caan = sky. The presence of
the cord in the Mexican symbols is, therefore, another indication
of their Maya origin. A proof that the Mayas also employed the
cord as a symbol of the sky, or heaven, is furnished by the much-
discussed lentil-shaped stone altar found at Copan, a small out
line of which is represented in fig. 21, no. 1. In order fully to
understand the meaning expressed by this stone, it is necessary to
bear in mind how indissolubly the idea of something circular was
associated by the Mayas and Mexicans with their conception of
the vault of heaven resting on the horizon, and of the Above,
consisting of the two fluid elements, air and water.

It is scarcely necessary to refer again here to more than one
authority for the statement that the temples of the air (of the
Above) were circular, and the reason given by the natives for this
was that " just as the air circulates around the vault of the heaven,
so its temple had to be of a round shape."1 As a contrast to this
conception, the influence of which is also obvious in the form of
the round temples and towers of the ruined cities of Central
America, I would cite the allusions to the solid earth contained in
the sacred books of the Mayas, the Popol Vuh, as being u the
quadrated earth, four-cornered, four-sided, four-bordered." These
data establish the important fact, to which I shall recur, that the
native philosophers associated the Above, composed of air and
water, with the rounded, and the Below, composed of fire and
water, with the angular form.

The Copan stone altar exhibits the circular form and is sur-

1 Republican de India*, Fray Jeronimo Roman de Zamorra 156'J-1575, ed. Suarez.
Madrid, 1898.

549

114 KEY-MOTE OF ANCIENT

rounded by a sculptured cord which conveys the sound of its name
kaan or caan = heaven. On it a cup-shaped depression — ho-och,
marks the sacred centre of the heaven, the counterpart to the ter
restrial bowl whence all life-giving force proceeded. Two curved
lines diverge from this and divide the vaulted circle into two parts.
The curve in the lines may be interpreted as conveying motion or
rotation whilst the division of the sky may have been intended to
signify the eastern or male and the western or female portion of
the heaven, the whole being an abstract image of central rulership
and of a dual principle incorporating the four elements. It is
obvious that the meaning intended to be conveyed might also in
clude the duality of the Heaven or Above, composed of the union
of the elements air and water. By painting the stone in two or
four colors either of these meanings could have been expressed.
In either case it will be recognized, however, that much as Dr.
Ernest Hamy's deductions concerning this altar have been criti
cised, the learned director of the Trocadero Museum, Paris, was
undoubtedly right in recognizing that the stone is a cosmical sym
bol, intended to convey the idea of a two-fold division and analo
gous to the Chinese tae-keih which it resembles, with the difference
that the Copan sign is more complex exhibiting, as it does, a
central bowl-shaped depression. A glimpse at the other symbols
in fig. 21 will show that the identical idea is expressed in the Mex
ican signs exhibiting a central circle, usually accompanied by a
four-fold division.

An analogous attempt to express the same native idea is recog
nizable in the peculiar mushroom-shaped stone figures, represented
by a number of examples at the Central American exposition re
cently held at Guatemala,1 and recently described by the distin
guished geologist and ethnologist, Dr. Carl Sapper. The specimens
had been collected in San Salvador and Guatemala and " resemble
great stone mushrooms " inasmuch as each consists of three well-
defined parts, a square pedestal from the midst of which rises an
almost cylindrical "stem" supporting a large circular solid top,
flat underneath and rounded above. The cylindrical support is
carved in the rough semblance of a human form, which, in some
instances, has rays issuing from its head.

An acquaintance with the fundamental ideas of native cosmog-

1 Pilz-foermige Goetzenbilder aus Guatemala und San Salvador. Carl Sapper,
Globus. band LXXIII, nr. 20.

550

AMKIWAX CIVILIZATION'S. 115

ony enables us to recognize that the square stone base typifies the
solid part of the universe, the Below, whilst the vaulted circle
above typifies the heaven, the Above. The figure standing between
both is evidently an image of a central lord and ruler, and the
entire image is in accord with the native mode of thought as set
forth in Mr. Frank II. Cushing's report already cited and in the
symbols which have been figured.

After reading ]Mr. Cushing's account of the native American
philosophy, preserved to the present day by the Zunis, it is impos
sible not to realize how clearly the mushroom-images materialize
the identical idens which constitute, indeed, the keynote of native
thought and can be traced in each centre of ancient American civ
ilization. I am inclined to think that these stone images were,
originally, painted with the colors assigned to the four quarters,
which would render the symbolism more apparent. The existence
of these images in a restricted area of territory, seems, moreover,
to indicate^that they had been invented there, possibly under the
influence of a religious ancV political creed with particular reference
to the union, in a single individual, of the power and attributes of
the Above and Below — an idea which strongly contrasts with
Mexico and Yucatan, where the idea of duality prevailed to such
an extent that,' by creating two distinct religions and governments,
it ultimately led to the disintegration of the greatest of native em
pires and its fall, from which it was only rallying at the time of
the Conquest. It is also possible that the Guatemala images are
the expression of the reversion to a more ancient form of philos
ophy or government when it had been realized that dual govern
ment led to dissensions and disintegration. At all events the rude
mushroom figures testify that the conception of a single celestial
or terrestrial ruler of the Above and the Below filled the minds of
their makers at a time, the exact date of which it would be of ut
most importance to determine, if this were only possible. It is
also interesting to note the curious analogy presented by these fig
ures to the well-known statement by Confucius that, " the sage is
united to Heaven and Earth so as to form a triad, consisting of
Heaven, Earth and Man."

The association of the round form and of the peak with the
Above and of the square and bowl with the Below can be also de
tected in the form of native American architecture, as exemplified,
for instance, by the contrasting shapes of two temples figured on

551

116

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

page 75, of the Borgian Codex (fig. 34) which were obviously dedi
cated to the two prevailing cults. One of these is surmounted by
a tau-shaped thatched roof with a flat top and turned-down ends.
The dedication of this temple to Night or star-cult is conveyed in
this case, by the sign for star on a black ground inserted in the
roof.1

The opposite temple exhibits a roof which rests on a black archi
trave and offers a general resemblance to an inverted tan. It rises

FIG. 34.

in a tapering form and ends in a cone-shaped ornament. The ex
istence and significance of these two forms of temple-roofs might
escape notice did the same not recur in two high caps or mitres
figured in the Vienna Codex and obviously intended for the respec
tive use of the Lords of the Above and of the Below at a religious

ceremonial (fig. 35). The first of these ends in a high peak,
the extremity of which is represented as capped with snow, in the
same conventional manner employed in figuring snow-mountains.
An extremely significant feature of this cap is its exhibition of a
curved and rounded pattern only on its border. The second mitre

1 For other examples bee Borgian Codex, pp. 2, 5, 64, 66, 74.

552

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

117

ends in a horizontal line ; it exhibits an angular pattern and two
flaps hang down from it, which, as they naturally concealed the
ears of the wearer, seem to have been symbolical of something
hidden, and, perhaps, of silence and secrecy. A third mitre is
figured on the same page, which seems to unite the characteristics
of both forms and is surmounted by a young maize-shoot, pro
ceeding from a vase.

The association of the Above with a peak or point is further
illustrated by a well-known peaked diadem always painted blue
which was the symbol of the visible ruler (fig. 36, no. 5). A
peak also occurs on military shields accompanied by four bars
(fig. 36, no. 3) and presents an analogy to no. 4 from the Ci Lyfe
of the Indians." The latter is given as the symbol of a sacred
festival which I have demonstrated in a previous publication to

have coincided with the vernal equinox.1 For further reasons which
I shall present in my calendar monograph, I infer that we have in
this drawing a most valuable image of the gnomon and dial em
ployed by the Sun priests for the observation of the equinoxes
and solstices. The human victim who was attached to the centre
of the circular stone during the same festival is usually repre
sented with the same cone or point and eight appendages on his
head (fig. 36, no. 2). Owing to the circumstance that this peaked
head dress, or cone, wras sometimes employed by the scribes for its
phonetic value, as in fig. 36, no. 1, from the Codex Mendoza, in
which instance it is figured on a mountain and is usually painted
blue, we know positively that its name was Yope or Yopi — a val
uable point since a temple and a sort of monastery in the court-

1 Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar System. Stockholm, 1894.

553

118 KEY-IS' OTE OF ANCIENT

yard of the Great Temple of Mexico were both named Yopico
(Sahagun). At the same time it should be noted that the Maya
name for " a mitre," the symbol of a divine ruler, is Yop-at. In
the Mexican ollin-signs a cone or ascending point is usually placed
above and opposite to a symbol consisting of a ring or loop. These
evidently signify the Above and Below, and in this connection it
is worth noticing that archaeologists have long puzzled over the
curious forms of the two kinds of prehistoric stone objects which
have most frequently been found in the island of Porto Rico. The
first of these consists of an elongated stone, the centre of which
rises in the shape of a cone, whilst the ends are respectively carved
in the rough semblance of a head and of feet. The second form,
which has frequently been found in caves, consists of a large stone
ring, and is popularly termed " a stone collar."
I LEA i am inclined to regard the latter as being analo-

L^ im gous to the " stone yokes " of ancient Mexico
I* and to infer that the aborigines of Porto Rico
SHANG practised a form of the same cult. It should

be borne in mind that the high conical stone,
on which the human victims were sacrificed,
was a salient feature in an ancient Mexican temple and that, its
form must have had some symbolical meaning. The foregoing
data indicate that it probably was emblematic of the Above and
Centre and was therefore regarded as the fitting place of sacrifice
to the Sun and Heaven, whilst offerings to the Earth were most
appropriately made in circular openings recalling the rim of the
boAvl and the round line of the horizon. It will be seen further
on that the cone recurs in native architecture and that its use as a
symbol, in the course of time, culminated in the pyramid.

Let us return to it in its rudimentary stage, as a perpendicular
line arising from a medium level, forming an inverted tan. The
widespread employment amongst American peoples of the inverted
and upright tan-shape as emblems of the Above and Below is
abundantly proven and doubtlessly arose as naturally as " the
Chinese characters Sliaug = Above, employed as a symbol for
Heaven, and Lea =. Below or Beneath, employed MS a symbol for
Earth. These are formed, in the one case, by placing a man '(rep
resented by a vertical line) above the medium level (represented
by a horizontal line) and in the other below it" (Encyclopedia
Britannica, art. China) fig. 37. Another equally graphic presenta-
554

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

119

tion of the analogous thought is furnished by the familiar Egyptian
sign which exhibits a loop or something rounded and hollow above
and a perpendicular line beneath the medium level. It is well
known that the tail occurs in Scandinavia and is popularly named
Tlior's hammer (iig. 38). Merely as a curious analogy I point out
that in fig. 25, no. 2, from the Vienna Codex, we have an American
instance of a tail -shaped object held in t'he hand in a ceremonial
rite.

The late and lamented Baron Gustav Nordenskjold observed
that the entrances to the ruined estufas of the ancient cliff-dwellers
of Colorado were in the shape of an upright tuu and it is well
known that this is also the case amongst the Pueblo Indians of the

TAO CROSS, THOR'8 HAMMER
OB ST. ANTHONY'S CROSS

RftYPTIAW CROSS
(Crux antata)

present day. By means of a photograph taken by Dr. A. War
burg of Berlin, whilst witnessing the Humis-katshina dance of the
Moqui Indians at Oraibi, in May, 1896, 1 am able to affirm that
the native dancers wear masks and high head-ornaments, partly of
wood, on which reversed and upright tau-symbols are painted, the
first in a light and the second in a dark color. As the name of
the ceremonial dance was explained to Dr. Warburg as signifying
" helping the sprouting or growing maize," and celebrated the ad
vent of the rainy season, it is obvious that the two forms of tail
which were displayed in alternate order on the heads of the dancers
in the procession symbolized the juxtaposition of the Above and
Below, of Heaven and Earth.

In the ruined temples of Central America, windows in the shape
of upright and reversed tans also occur. The following series of

555

120 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

architectural openings (fig. 39) are copied from Mr. Alfred P.
Maudslay's invaluable and splendid work, which has not, as yet,
met with the recognition it so richly deserves.1 They display be
sides the tau-shape (>/ and h) other forms, the symbolism of which
has been discussed. There are cross-shaped (e), square, round and
oval windows ((/, J, b and /), the square obviously symbolical of
the Earth and the round of the Heaven. Besides these there are
openings in the form of a truncated cone (a, and c) and others
ending in -i narrow point (k) . A striking form which recalls the
Moorish arch and is shown in /, may, perhaps, be looked upon as
an attempt to express the idea of a union of the Above and Below.
In connection with these architectural features it is interesting
to study their names in the native languages. The Nahuatl names
for windows are singularly expressive of their uses : tlachialoyan=
the watching place or look-out ; puchquiauatl = the smoke open-

FIG. 39.

ing ; tlanexillotl = a word which literally means light and splen
dor, and to which the following words are related : tlanextia,
verb = to shine, shed light and radiance ; tlanextilla = something
revealed, made manifest, found or discovered, newly invented or
formed (brought to light) ; tlanexcayotiliztli — figure, signification
or example ; tlanexcayotilli = something figured or significative.

The meaning of the Maya name for window, cizuebna, is not
clear, whilst that for door, chi, is the same as for mouth, opening or
entrance. At the same time it is evident that, as in Mexico and
elsewhere, the window openings in the Maya temples must have
been associated with the idea of light, and the symbolical forms
given to these besides their positions lead to the inference that
they were actually regarded as mystic framed images, so to speak,
of the supreme, invisible deity, through which, the light of day
and the darkness of night alternately revealed themselves to those

1 Biologia Centrali-Americana. Archaeology, edited by F. Ducanc Godnian, London.
556

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

121

inside the sacred buildings. A careful study of the positions and
orientations of these openings may yet prove that they also served
for astronomical observation. The walls being usually pierced
above reach, nothing but the sky could have been watched through
them. But besides these, the interiors of Maya ruins contain in
teresting examples of mural openings and recesses which seem to
have been carefully planned so that they should appear dark even
in daytime and, in more than one case, these display the form of
the upright tau, the symbol of darkness and the Below.1

It does not seem to have been generally recognized that the
alternate contraposition of upright and reversed taus produces the
best known and most widely spread primitive border-design, usually
known as the Greek fret (fig. 40, no. 6). A plain demonstration

a T_ P

- 9.

FIG.

of this is, oddly enough, visible on the two side-projections of the
Scandinavian brooch (fig. 13) all symbols on which, I venture to
assert, would have been perfectly intelligible and full of meaning
to an ancient Mexican. The evolution of the fret, on the Ameri
can continent, can be studied on the beautiful wooden clubs from
Brazil and British Guiana, figured in Dr. Hjalmar Stolpes' valua
ble work already referred to. As striking instances his fig. 8, pi. 1 ,
figs. 3d and 3c, pi. xm, and figs, la and lb< pi. v, should be exam
ined. The latter instance is extremely instructive as it not only
exhibits single taus of two forms, but the same in different positions,

JThe most striking example of this is in the Palace House, at Palenque, all wall-holes
of which are tau^haped. An elaborate stucco ornamentation, richly colored, encloses
two upright taus surrounded by raised borders. One is a deep opening in the wall;
the other, next to it, is lilled in and exhibits a hm-i/ontal line resting on a vertical
one. There can be no doubt that a profound symbolical meaning was expressed by
the entire motif, which has been admirably reproduced by Mr. A. P. Mamlslay
(Biologia (Jentrali-Americana, Archeology, part vi, pi. 18).

122 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

as well as two double-headed figures joined in one, which illustrate
the native association already discussed, of duality and of the
curved lines as the opposite of the rectangular and both respect
ively figuring the Above and Below.

It is impossible to study the decorations on these South Ameri
can clubs without becoming convinced that their makers shared the
same ideas as the ancient Mexicans. They offer, indeed, a whole
set of variations on the native therne and idea of Heaven and
Earth. Two instances (fig. 5a, pi. ix, and 6rt, pi. xi) in which the
union of two figures produces a third, or a single one produces
two, elucidate the meaning sometimes expressed by the designs-
In the round or spiral forms, which are most frequently accom
panied by a zigzag border, I am inclined to see a presentation of
air and water, corresponding to the Mexican symbols of the
Above.

As lack of space forbids my making here a more extended com
parison of the native symbols, I shall but point out how the tau.
in juxtaposition and contraposition painted in two colors, produces
fig. 40, no. 3. The picture from the Codex Mendoza of a native
tlachtli, the form of which is represented by two taus in contra
position, is partly painted black. The same division of a single
tau into two parts, colored differently, transforms no. 3 into no. 4
and shows that a single tau could have been employed cursively
to symbolize union. 2 and 7 are but variants of 3 and 4. If,
instead of angles, curved lines be given to the taus, the first half
of fig. f> is the result. When spaces between the incurving hooks
and the border are filled out with color, the familiar design on the
second half of 5 results. With exception of the latter, the South
American clubs exhibit each of the above forms, as well as no. 8.
It will be shown later that these also occur in ancient Peru.

The foregoing examples of the employment of taus in upright
and reserved positions is, however, by no means exhaustive. Fig.
41 teaches that the familiar checker-board or tartan design, sym
bolically employed in ancient Mexico, was the simple result of taus
in contraposition, the square spaces thus found being alternately
filled with black and brown or gray. The symbolism of this de
sign only becomes evident when all the combinations in wrhich it
occurs have been carefully studied. It is represented in the Codi
ces in the doorways and arches of certain sacred edifices which are
shown to be estufas or temaz-calli by further illustrations which 1
558

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

123

could not reproduce here, but which exhibit even the steam escaping
from the building and other unmistakable features.

Sahagun lias recorded how these semi-sacred edifices were spec
ially consecrated to the " Mother of the gods and of us all, whose
curative and life-giving power was exerted in the temazcalli, also
named xochicalli, the place where she sees secret things, rectifies
what has been deranged in human bodies, fructifies young and
tender things, . . . and where she aids and cures . . ."
It was customary for pregnant women to resort to these baths
under the care of the medicine- woman who exhorted her patient on
entering, with the words : *' Enter into it, my daughter, enter into
the bosom of our Mother whose name is Yoalticitl . . . warm

FIG. 41.

thyself in the bath, which is the house of flowers of our god . . ."
(Historia, book vr, chap. xxvn).

The Vienna Codex contains, besides pictures of temples (fig. 41,
a and &), two instances which elucidate the meaning of the design ;
c of the same figure displays the conventional symbol for land,
fringed on three sides. Enclosed in this and seen, in profile, is a
stratum of checker-board design, above which is a sheet of water ;
d displays a conventionally drawn mountain, inside of which is the
symbolical vase filled with the design. From this steam or smoke
ascends through the soil of the mountain, and forces its way through
the surface, above which we see two recurved puffs of smoke and
a young blossoming maize shoot, conventionally drawn, such as
may be seen worn by priestesses, as a symbolical head decora
tion, on page 11 of the Vienna Codex. The seated figure of a
priest is represented as sheltering its growth with his outspread

124 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

mantle. On his back he displays a symbol, composed of two
rolls united by a crossband, which is met with in Maya and Mexi
can Codices. In the latter the four projecting ends are usually
painted with the colors of the four quarters. As these are figured
as united into a single sign, it seems evident that this symbolized
a union of the four elements deemed necessary for the production
of life by the ancient native philosophers.

The foregoing illustrations, to which more could be added, clearly
establish that the checkered design was associated with the sym
bols of earth, heat and water. It obviously expressed the idea
embodied in the Nahuatl word xotlac = the heated earth ; literally,
glowing embers, also budding and opening flowers. It was em
blematic of the fall of the rain or earth- wine upon the heated soil.
In the temazcalli the same life-producing union of the elements
took place and aided human growth and health. It would seem
as though the appellation xoch-i-calli, bestowed upon the sweat-
house by the native medicine-woman, expressed the same train of
thought. Moreover, it is noteworthy, that the sound of the first
part of this name and of xo-tlac recurs in the Maya word for vase
in general, ho-och. The checker-board design would naturally
have been employed in connection with the festivals, associated
with esoteric rites, which were held in celebration of the union of
the Heaven and Earth at the commencement of the rainy season.
It would, naturally, therefore, have been used as a decoration on
the drinking vessels employed in the distribution of fermented
drinUs for vivifying and curative purposes. It is met with on
Peruvian drinking bowls, as proven by several examples in the
Royal Ethnographical Museum in Berlin, for instance.

It is curious to note as an interesting analogy that the same
checkered design frequently adorns the ancient Egyptian drinking
bowls represented in the hieroglyphic writings. I have also ob
served it in some ancient Greek drinking vessels, preserved at the
Imperial Hermitage Museum at St. Petersburg, where it decorated
the bowl itself or the garments of Bacchantes figured thereupon.
It is also met with in ancient Peruvian textile fabrics, in black and
white, as on one figure vase in the Berlin Museum, and, needless to
remark, it is a Scotch clan tartan. Its adoption as the basis for
chess-boards of ancient Egypt seems to indicate that there it also
signified the Above and Below and that the game was thought of
as an exemplification of the eternal contest between the powers
560

AMKKH.'AN < I VII.I7 ATK >N

125

of Heaven and Earth, light and darkness, etc. We look to spe
cialists for information as to the origin, meaning and employment
in Egypt and Greece of this primitive and almost universal design.
In ancient Mexico and possibly Peru, it obviously pertained to
a set of ideas which, in some communities, might easily have de
generated and led to the institution of rites and ideas such as were
prevalent in the Maya colony which had established itself at the
mouth of the Panuco river, on the coast of Mexico, north of Vera
Cruz, and from which the Iluaxtecans of the present day descend.
It is interesting to note that the name of the capital founded by
the colonists, who seem to have emigrated owing to well-founded
religious persecution, was Tucli-pan, a word which signifies in the
Maya tongue " the umbilicus," qualified by pan, meaning kt that

FH;. 41.

which is above or excels," etc., but which was expressed in Nahuatl
picture-writings by a rabbit = tochtli and a banner — pantli.

The opposite of the checkered or xotlac design, was the native
water and air pattern which lias been pointed out, as encircling the
mitre of the Lord of the Above or Heaven. It likewise figures in
native pictures on the mantles of some of Montezuma's predeces
sors. The history of its origin and development is best learned
from the following native illustrations. Fig. 42, nos. 1 and 2, rep
resents sea-waves, the Maya name for which, by the way, is kukul-
yaam, which admits of the interpretation u divine-water " or, if
we connect kukul with the Mexican eoliuhqui, " twisted or bent
water." A representation of water, as figured on a mantle in the
" Lyfe of the Indians," conveys the idea of water moved by the
action of the wind, the blank curve reminding one also of the curves

P. M. PAl'KHS I 30 "•(',!

KEY-NOTE OF ANC'IKNT

so often associated by native artists with serpents' heads, and with
the wind and rain-gods. The well-known symbol of the air-god is
accompanied, as already shown (fig. 20), by an ornament which
forms a solid frame for a hollow curve constituting an air-image.
In the following image an analogous ear ornament is figured and it-
is surrounded by puffs of air or wind, conventionally drawn (fig. 43).
Whilst the foregoing illustrations amply prove that the natives
associated the curved and rounded form with water as moved by
air, it must be noticed that in Mexico and Yucatan, as well as in
Brazil and Guiana, plain water was figured by a series of parallel
zigzag or undulated lines. For these reasons I infer that the
symbolical design, representing actual waves, always expressed the
union of air and water, and was therefore emblematic of the cult

Tv ^ Vx- 6V

v»* \&^s'':'^L^l

FKJ. 48.

of the upper elements, or the Above. It is unfortunate that, in
Mexico, no vestiges remain of the circular temples which were
particularly dedicated to Quetzalcoatl = the divine twin or lord of
the twin upper elements = air and water. Doubtlessly they were
appropriately decorated with horizontal bands exhibiting the sacred
design. The ruined condition of Central American round temples
scarcely justifies the hope that such a verification can be made. At
the same time the round temple on a square base, with its peculiar
ground plan, was, of itself, an image of the Above and of central
rule extending to the four quarters (fig. 30, p. 97). That the air
and water design was actually employed in America as a frieze on
sacred edifices is proven, however, by more than one illustration
of.i?

AMKRK'AX CIVILIZATIONS. 127

in the Vienna Codex and other native MSS. (fig. 35, <•). We also
see the design decorating tlie painted drinking bowls named xicalli
which were employed in the distribution of the sacred pulque or
octli at certain religious festivals. As the Mexican name given to
the design itself is xical-eoliuhqui, it seems as though it was most
popularly known as the " twisted or winding pattern " of the sacred
drinking vessels.

Having originated, as I have shown, from the simplest observa
tion of the action of air upon a surface of water, it is but natural
that the same design should have independently originated in sev
eral localities. It is, nevertheless, worth mentioning here that the
dome of one of the most beautiful of ancient Greek remains, the
choragic monument of Lysicrates, or lantern of Demosthenes at
Athens, is surrounded by a band or fascia, cut into the water de
sign. It is evident that, seen against the sky, this graphically
represented the curling waves of water " on summer seas," and
this was evidently the most primitive method of employing this
form of symbolical decoration which is more familiar when exe
cuted in solid masonry stucco, as a frieze.

The identical process of development may be observed in Mexi
can architecture. In the Vienna and other native Codices, countless
temples are depicted as surmounted with fascire cut into rectangu
lar designs in such a manner that the blank space left between
each solid projection figures its inverted image in the air (fig. 35,
a — (1). In these open fasci;e an intention to symbolize the solid
or Earth, and the fluid or Heaven, is discernible, whilst the step-like
projections seem to express or convey the idea of ascent and de
scent, perhaps the ascent of human supplication and the descent
of the much-prayed -for rain. From the other examples of temple
decorations (fig. 35, / and /<) it is evident that, in solid friezes, a
light and a dark color were employed in the same designs, to con
vey the same idea.

Evidence proving that the emblems on the roofs of the temples
were replete with meaning is furnished by several representations
of roofs, on which rows of upstretched hands or of human hearts
are depicted. My horror at these seemingly ghastly emblems van
ished ns soon as I ascertained their actual meaning from a passage
in Sahagun's Historia. Describing a certain sacred dance he re
cords that "on the white garments of the girls who took part in
it, hands and hearts were painted, signifying that they lifted their

1'28

KKY-NOTK OK ANCIKNT

hearts ami hands to heaven, praying for ruin." Not only does
this explain the symbolism of the hands on the temples but also
the native custom observed, by modern pilgrims in Mexico and
Yucatan, of painting uplifted hands on the outer walls of sanctu
aries as an act of piety and devotion.

The hideous necklaces of alternate hands and hearts which en
circle the neck of a great monolithic idol in the city of Mexico and
of an image in the "• I^yfe of the Indians " are thus also proven to
be the touching though uncouth and child-like expression of a devout
prayer. I laving gained this insight into the deep significance of

native emblems it is interesting
to study the peculiar breast-orna
ment which is the emblem of Xinh-
tecuhtli, literally "the azure lord,"
or the lord of the year or of (ire
and of the Cihuacoatl or woman-
serpent. It consists of an oblong
plaque, the narrow ends of which
are cut out so as to simulate two
air pyramids with steps. The
name of this symbolical ornament
is recorded by Sahagun as xiuh-
tetelli, literally the turquoise or
grass-green pyramid. It is in
variably painted blue and dis
plays a round plate of burnished
gold in its centre. For more reasons than I can pause to relate
here, it can be shown that the plaque probably symbolized the
Above, the blue sky, water and air, whilst the gold plate was an
image of the central divinity. The sides of the square stool on
which the god is seated are also cut out so as to convey the idea
that he is resting above terraced air-pyramids (fig. 44). His shield
is surrounded by a cord and contains a cross-symbol with lines con
veying the idea of rotation and four circles. The banner above the
shield named pantli conveys the sound of the word pan r= above,
whilst his conical ear-ornament symbolizes the Centre and Above.
These details are noteworthy because I am about to point out the
striking analogy between a Zuni idol or fetish and the ancient Mex
ican pictures of the lord of lire and the lord of the north or the
underworld = Tezcatlipoca.
504

FIG. 44.

AMKKICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 129

This Zuni idol was sent to the Royal Ethnographical JMuseuin tit
Berlin as part of a representative collection by Mr. Frank II.
dishing and has been figured and described in the publications of
the Museum, with notes by Dr. E. Seler. l It represents the Zuni
god Atchialatopa whose attributes are stone knives, who is the
patron of the secret society, "• Small fire " and who is identified
with a great star. His fetish represents him as standing on the
centre of a cross, formed of four beams placed vertically and per
forated with step-like perforations. The ends are cut out like those
of Xiuhtecnhtli's blue emblem. Two parallel bars, the upper one
of which is painted blue, the color of heaven, and the lower painted
green, the color of the earth, convey the ever-present native idea
of the Above and Below. The arms of the cross are painted red
with yellow ends which, according to Mr. Gushing, represent the
light emanating, in four directions, from the star. The arms are
distinctly associated with the cardinal points and each supports
the effigies of a mountain lion and a bird — typifying, evidently,
as in Mexico, the Above and Below. This cross, with the figure
standing on its centre, is suspended from above and, during a cer
tain ceremony, it is set into rapid gyratory motion, from left to
right by the officiating high priest.

It is impossible not to see, in this fetish, a swastika in substantial
form and in actual rotation ; whilst the figure of the god, decorated
with stone knives, moves as on a pivot in the centre, presenting
exactly the same idea as in the Mexican image of the god held
in the centre of a cross-symbol by the jaws of a tecpatl or flint
knife. It is unnecessary to mention again here that the only star
in the heaven, which could possibly have been regarded as a centre
of rotation, is Polaris ; but I should like to draw attention to the
fact that bunches of feathers are attached to the extremities of
the cross-beams and to the summit of the terraced head-dress of
the fetish and recall the circumstance that, amongst the Mexicans
and Mayas, the names for feather were almost identical with those
for heaven or something celestial and divine.

As the Zuiii god is said to be standing on his red star (an 1110-
yatchun thlana) and figures as a centre of rotation, I look upon
this fetish as affording most striking confirmation of my conclu
sions concerning the origin of the swastika and cross symbols. Jf

1 Veroffentlichungen aus <lem KonU'lichcii Mineum filr Volkerkunde, iv hand, i
heft. 18'.)."). p. 5.

130 KEY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

it is certain that, at the present day, the Zuiiis associate this star-
god with Sirius and their cross symbol with the morning star, then
it is quite obvious that they have lost the original meaning of the
rotating-star fetish, which could never have been suggested by
either of these or, indeed, by any other heavenly body but Polaris.
I regret that space does not permit me to consider here, more fully,
other close analogies between ancient Mexican and modern Zuni
religious ceremonies, etc., besides those which have been so well
described by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes.

I cannot omit to note here for further reference that the national
war gods of the Zuiiis are the twin-brothers Ahaiiuta, the elder,
whose altars were situated to the riylit or south and west of Zuni,
and Matsailema, the younger, whose altars stood to the left or north
and east of the village. The secret society of the warriors and
priests of the bow dedicated their cult to these brothers, whose
counterparts we have already studied in Mexico and Yucatan.

Returning to the primitive designs which expressed the union of
the Above and Below, I point out an interesting example from the
44 Lyfe of the Indians," which likewise symbolizes the four quarters,
and their subdivision and their relation to the whole (fig. 32, no. 3) .
A somewhat analogous design, from Peru, presents an outline re
sembling a swastika (iig. 40, no. 9) which, when filled in with al
ternate colors, yields fig. 40, no. 1, in which the idea of the Above
and Below preponderates. Another example of an analogous em
ployment of a light and dark color is furnished by a shield in the
Codex Mendoza, shown in fig. 1, no. 1, alongside of an interest
ing image which gives us an insight into the depths of meaning
contained in the dual is Lie native designs. It consists of a disk, one-
half of which represents the starry heaven and the other the sun,
resting on a parti-colored support (no. 8) . It is evident that day and
night are thus symbolized, and it is reasonable to infer that in some
centres of thought especially the ideas of light and darkness should
have become associated with the two different forms of cult the
followers of which would be respectively designated as the children
of light and the children of darkness. By means of a light and
a dark color numberless variations of the one theme were indeed
obtained. In the native Codices, in textile fabrics and on pottery,
there are also numerous examples of an extremely simple design
consisting of a single zigzag line running between two parallel
lines and dividing the intervening space into two fields, the lower
5 GO

131

of which is filled out with black tiiul the other with some light color.
The dark upright and light inverted peaks were evident!}' employed
as familiar and favorite emblems of earth and heaven.

I am inclined to see in the serrated summit of the remarkable
edifice, known as the House of Doves at Uxmal, a rendering of
the same symbolism on a gigantic scale (iig. 45). It cannot but
be recognized, moreover, that a high edifice presenting a regular
series of cones, and extending from east to west, would have
afforded an excellent means of registering the varying positions
of heavenly bodies. To observers looking towards it from the
north or south, at judiciously chosen distances, the entire span of
the sky would have seemed divided into eight equal parts, seen as
inverted air pyramids between nine sections which rise in steps and

terminate in points, each gable being perforated with thirty win
dow-like openings, arranged in seven horizontal rows. The pur
pose of these gable-like piles has been a riddle to the archaeologists,
who have visited Uxmal. Dr. Win. II. Holmes, from whose, val
uable works I cite the above descriptions, expresses his wonder at
" the great building, bearing upon its roof a colossal masonry
comb, built at an enormous expenditure of time and labor . . .
which seemed to have been built exclusively for the purpose of
embellishing the building and holding aloft its sculptured orna
ments" (Ancient cities of Mexico, pi. i, p. 1)5).

I venture to maintain that this remarkable edifice not only afforded
facilities for astronomical observation but constituted in itself a
great prayer for rain wrought in stone and addressed to the Lord

132 KKY-XOTK <>K ANCIKNT

of Heaven by a devout people. In corroboration of this inference,
besides the foregoing data, I point out that to this day the Pueblo
Indians associate the step pyramid form with beneficent rain and
even give this shape to the edges of the sacred bowls which are
carried in the ceremonial dances bv the " rain-makers." Accord
ing to Mr. dishing the Zunis compare the rim of such bowls to
the line of the " horizon, terraced with mountains, whence rise the
clouds." lie was likewise informed that the terrace form repre
sents "the ancient sacred place of the spaces," an expression which,
though somewhat vague, seems to corroborate my view of the
Uxmal building. The Zuni statement that the terrace form figured
mountains leads to the subject of so-called " mountain worship."
In ancient Mexico, at the approach of the rainy season, religious
ceremonies are performed in honor of the mountains which were
looked upon as active agents in the production of rain, because
they attracted and gathered the clouds around their summits. The
tops of mountains were thus regarded as the sacred place where
the sky and heaven met and produced the showers which vivified
the earth. Pilgrimages and offerings to mountain summits formed
a part of the duties of the Mexican priesthood, but in the cities the
pyramid temple served as a convenient substitute for the mountain.

The close association of the terrace form with rain and water
symbolism is certainly exemplified in the Mexican design on a
temple roof (fig. 35, <'). The most remarkable application of the
dualistic designs is, however, met within Pern where, according to
Wiener, the irrigation canals which carried water to the inaize fields
were laid out so as to form pattern bands like fig. 40, nos. 4 and 7,
for instance. It is evident that this system of irrigation must
have been an extremely effective and practical one, but that it had
been probably adopted from superstitious motives as an illustra
tion of the vivifying union of the celestial shower with the seed-
laden soil. The assumption that the ancient Peruvians shared the
same ideas as the Mexicans and Mayas will be found justified bv
the following data.

It is now my intention to give a brief and bare outline sketch
of the Peruvian civilization, by means of a series of quotations
from the best authorities.1 Incomplete though this must neces-

1 Garcilaso de In Ve^a, Coinentanas Keales, Lisbon, KJ09; also translation by Sir
Clements H. Markham, issued by tlie Ilakhiyt Society. Rites and Laws of the Ineas
(accounts by Molina, Salcamayhua, Avila and On degardo), translated by Sir Clements
T5. Markham; also Cie/.a de Leon, lien era, etc. and MS. of Padre Anello Oliva.

5G8

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

133

sarily be, it will, nevertheless, establish, beyond a doubt, tluit the
founders of the great Inca empire were under the dominion of the
sume set of ideas which I have been tracing' throughout the Amer
ican continent. The lucid records of the Peruvian chronicles and
the purity with which the system had been maintained by the In-
cas, enable us to recognize and appreciate its manifold perfections
as a mode of primitive government.

The best authorities agree that the inhabitants of the country,
now known as Peru, lived in barbarism until civilization was intro
duced amongst them by the Incas. One tradition designates an
island in the Titicaca lake, another Tiahuanaco, as the place where,
" after the deluge," a man or deity appeared, divided the land into
four parts and distributed these to four brothers, amongst whom
was Manco Capac, to whom was assigned the province to the north.
Each brother had a sister who was also his wife. Manco Capac
and his sister and wife Mama-Ocllo or, according to other author
ities, the third Jnca Lloque Yupanqui and his consort, founded
Cuzco, also given as Kosko or Kuska, a name which, according
to Garcilaso de la Vega signifies "navel of the earth" and was
bestowed kt because tl.e newly-founded capital was to be the centre
and point of all." The city was divided into two parts : llanan
Cuzco = the Above, which was ruled over by the Incii, and Ilurin
Cuzco = the Below, which was governed by his wife and sister,
who bore the honorific title of Coya — queen and Mamanchic =
our mother. The inhabitants consequently became separated into
two categories: the upper lineage and the lower lineage, Hanan-
ayllu and Hurin-ayllo. At the same time this division was not
made so '"that those of one-half should have an advantage over the
other . . . the command was that only one difference and
acknowledgment of superiority was to be conceded to the inhabi
tants of the upper town. They were to be respected and looked
upon as the first born and elder brothers, whilst the dwellers in the
lower town were to be regarded as younger or second brothers.
They were to rank as the right arm and the left arm in all offices
or places where precedence was necessary. The same division was
subsequently carried out in all the towns, great or small, through
out the country, their inhabitants being constantly classed into
upper and lower lineages or classes." The empire itself was named
Tauautin-suyu, signifying the four in one, or the empire, which
wras divided into four provinces : Anti-suyu=East ; Cunti-suyu i=

5G'J

134

KKY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

West, on the road to which were two famous brooks of wtiter
named the silver serpents, Collquemachachuay ; Cuiiicha-suyu —

North ; Colla-suyu — South. It is recorded that the Coya or queen
went to the Colhi-suyu or South and taught tlie women the art of
weaving, of planting maize and of preparing it for food. In con
nection with the name of female rule — Coya, and the South —
Colla-suyu it is interesting to note that the name for granary was
Coll-cana. Padre Arriaga (quoted by Rivero and Tschudi, p. 103)
describes a remarkable monument which shows that the West was
also associated with the female ruler. " The monolithic statue
[magnificently sculptured and placed on a sepulchral eminence near
Ililavi] represented two monstrous figures standing back to buck.
One, representing a man, faced to the East; the other, with a
woman's face, looked towards the West.1 Serpents were repre
sented as crawling up the figures and these stood on other reptiles
resembling frogs. In front of each of these idols there was a
square slab of stone which seemed to have served as an altar."

With the dual division of the population the seeds of dissension
were sown in Peru as elsewhere. At a certain festival the youths
of the upper lineage encountered those of the lower lineage in
trials of strength and prowess, which sometimes resulted in vio
lence. A certain feeling of rivalry and opposition must have been
thus fostered. Two forms of cult prevailed : the Inca lords and
warriors were associated with the cult of the Above of which the
emblems were golden images of the Creator and of the Sun, " the
lord of day," to whose power rain and thunder were attributed.
The silver huaca or image of the moon, called Quilla in Quechna
and Pacsa in the Colla dialect, was in the figure of a woman and
was kept under the charge of women, the reason for this being
u that the moon was a woman." During the festival Situa, one day
was dedicated to the Creator, the Sun and Thunder and another to
" the Moon and Earth, when the accustomed sacrifices and prayers
were offered up." We thus clearly distinguish a cult of the Heaven
and Day presided over by the Inca and a cult of Earth and Night,
whose high priestess was the Coya. She, moreover, had charge of

1 Attention is called to a curious error in the original text by Arriaga, quoted by
1 {.ive.ro and Tschudi. Arriaga states that the two statues stood back to back, but lie
makes the woman look toward the " poniente " and the man to the '' occidente,
thus making both figures face the west. As "poniente" is the current Spanish
phrase for the west, it is evident that the author made a slip in the use of the classi
cal term, and intended to say that the man faced the " orieute."

T>70

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 135

tlie embalmed bodies of her predecessors, which were regarded us
sacred and were solemnly carried forth in certain festivals, whilst
the bodies of the defunct Incas were guarded by their successor.
The emblems of botli cults were, however, preserved in a single
Great Temple, whose principal doorway looked to the north, a fact
of special importance in connection with what follows.

All authorities, indeed, designate the north as the quarter whence
the foreign culture-heroes came to Peru. "• The Incas had a knowl
edge of the Creator from the first," but it was not until the time
of the Inca Yupanqui that the ignorant sun-worship of the primi
tive inhabitants of the country was superseded by a firmly estab
lished new and superior religion.

kt Inca Yupanqui appears to have been the first to order and set
tle ceremonies and religions. He it was who established the twelve
months of the year, giving a name to each and ordaining the cer
emonies that were to be observed in each. For although his an
cestors used months and years counted by the quippus, yet they
were never previously regulated until the time of this Lord. He
was of such clear understanding that he reflected upon the respect
and reverence shown by his ancestors to the Sun who worshipped
it as a God. lie observed that it never had any rest and that it
daily journeyed round the earth ; and he said to those of his coun
cil that it wax not possible that the Sun could be the God who created
all things, for if lie was lie would not permit a small cloud to obscure
his splendour ; and that if he teas creator of all things he would
sometimes rest and light 'tip the n:hole world from one spot. Thus it
cannot be otherwise but that there is someone who directs him and
this is the Pacha- Yachachi, the Creator, literally, the Teacher of
the World." His predecessors had ordered an oval plate of line
gold which was to serve as an image of the Creator of heaven and
earth, and, in order to convey this meaning it was placed between
images of the sun and moon ; a proof that the latter were em
ployed as symbols of heaven and earth.

Inca Yupanqui, however, also caused a statue of the Creator to
be made of fine gold and of the size of a boy of ten years of ;tge
in order to convey the idea of his eternal youth. " It was in the
shape of a man standing up, the right arm raised and the hand
almost closed, the fingers and thumb raised as one who was giving
an order." The second gold statue he had made, a personifica-

571

136 KKY-NOTK 01 ANCIKNT

tion of the sun tk which was dressed like the Inca and wore all his
insignia," shows he claimed to he and constituted himself as the
visible representative and Lord of the Above. The silver female
statue of the Moon doubtlessly exhibited, in the same manner, the
insignia of the Coya. Inca Yupanqui also ordered the houses and
temple of Quisuar-cancha to be built and, at this spot, Sir Clements
Mark ham observed an ancient wall, with serpents carved upon it.
The name signifies, literally, "• the place of the Quisuar tree," and
will be again referred to further on. Without pausing to discuss
the subject at length let us examine further the scheme of govern
ment, etc., introduced by the Incas, the most striking feature of
which was the systematical classification of the people, their as
signment to specified dwelling places and the distribution of labor
according to prescription.

The key to the entire gigantic system was the conception of a
central immutable supreme power which directed all visible and
invisible manifestations and which sent forth and re-absorbed all
energy. In Cuzco and in the Inca Empire we have a minutely
described instance of the application, to terrestrial government, of
the laws of fixed order, harmony, periodicity and rotation learned
by earnest and patient observers of the northern heaven, during
countless centuries of time. The centre of Cuzco consisted of a
great square whence four roads radiated to the cardinal points. In
the centre of this stood a gold vase from which a fountain iiowed.
The Spaniards also found in Cuzco a large, beautifully-polished
stone-cross which evidently symbolized, as in Mexico, the four
quarters and must have been appropriately placed in the square.
Garcilaso de la Vega states that the capital formed an actual image
of the whole empire, u for it was divided into four quarters and an
extremely ancient law rendered it obligatory that representatives
of each province and of each class of population should reside
there in homes, the location of which precisely corresponded to
the geographical position of their respective provinces. Each lin
eage was thus represented and occupied separate dwellings, assigned
to them by the governors of the quarters. All persons were ob
liged to adhere to the customs of their forefathers and also wear
the costumes of their ayllus or tribes (Cieza de Leon, Cronica
chap. xcm). For the Incas had decreed that the dresses worn by
the members of each tribe should be different, so that the people

AMERICAN f'l VILIZATIONS. 137

might be distinguished from each other as, down to that time,
there had been no means of knowing to what locality or tribe an
Indian belonged." . . . In order to avoid confusion the modes
of wearing the hair were rigidly prescribed and the bands worn on
the head by the vassals had to be black or of a single color only.
The higher in rank a person was the more his costume resembled
that of the Inca, without, however, approaching it in length and
richness. " Thus, even in an assemblage of 100,000 persons it
was easy to recognize individuals of each tribe and of each rank
by the signs they wore on their heads."

"It was obligatory that each should permanently live in the prov
ince lie belonged to. Each province, each tribe and, in many parts
each village, had its own language which was different from that
of its neighbors. Those who understood each other by speaking
the same language considered themselves as related to each other
and were friends and confederates. . . . The Incas employed
a private language of their own which none but members of the
royal lineage presumed or dared to learn." Garcilaso de la Vega,
who claimed royal descent, stated that unfortunately no records
remained to enable one to form an idea of what the Inca language
was like.

The autocratic, though peaceable way in which the novel scheme
of government was imposed upon the inhabitants of Peru by the
foreign chieftains is best, proven by the following passages from
the Rites and Laws of the Incas (p. 77) and Garcilaso de la Vega
(pp. 9 and 10). " With a view that each tribe should be clearly
distinguishable and after assigning a different costume to each
they were ordered to choose their respective pacariscas, a word
meaning, literally, their birth and origin. They were told to choose
for themselves whence they were descended and whence they came,
and as the Indians were generally very dull and stupid, some chose
to assign their origin to a lake, others to a spring, others a rock,
others a hill or ravine. But every lineage chose some object for
its pacarisca. Some tribes [subsequently] adored eagles because
they boasted to have descended from them . . . others adored
fountains, rivers, the earth, which the}T call Mother, or air, fire,

snow- mount;» ins, maize, the sea, named mother-sea."
According to Garcilaso de la Vega " the Peruvian tribes subse
quently invented an infinity of fables concerning the origin of their

138 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

different ancestors . . . An Indian does not consider himself
honorable unless he can trace his descent from a river, fountain,
lake or the sea, or from some wild beast like the bear, puma, oce
lot, eagle, etc." An example of a certain amount of vain-glory
was indeed set by the diplomatic Tnca himself who claimed, for
himself and lineage', descent from the Sun and reserved burnished
gold ornaments for his particular use. His successors subsequently
built a temple of the Sun at Cnzco and set up its image made of
gold and precious stones. Around this, the royal l' pacarisca,"
they placed the mummies of all the dead Incas. In another room
there was an image of " the moon, with a woman's face," and about
it were the mummies of the royal women. From this we learn
that the latter assigned their origin to the moon and that it' was
their pacarisca or huaca. As an illustration of the way in which
creation- myths are sometimes evolved from actual occurrences, it
is interesting to study another account of the mode in which tribal
regulations were introduced into Peru. Owing, most probably, to
the fact that one of the titles given to the Creator was " the
Teacher," we find Molina attributing to the Creator himself the
establishment of the tribal system and the assignment of totems
and different costumes to each group or family. If we read his
account and, with Garcilaso de la Vega and others, attribute to the
Incas the introduction of civilization into Peru, we recognize the
practical good sense with which they accomplished the rather diffi
cult task of obliging each tribe to wear a different costume. " In
Tiahuanaco ... he made one of each nation of clay and
painted [these] with the dresses that each one was to wear. Those
who were to wear their hair, with hair ; and those who were to be
shorn, with hair cut . . . when he had finished making the
nations and painting the said figures of clay, he gave life and soul
to each one, as well man as woman . . . each nation then
went to the place to which he ordered it to go."

I confess that, until I studied the above record in full, I had very
vague ideas about the huacas or " idols " of the Peruvians. But
wThen I found it stated, further on, that " each tribe wore the dress
with which their huaca is invested," I began to realize what huacas
might originally have been. It would seem that on assigning a
different costume and distinctive name to eacli tribe, the founder of
the new colony gave each chief as a model, a different clay doll,
574

AMKRK'AN CIVILIZATIONS.

139

painted with the distinctive marks lie and his people were to adopt.
This figure would naturally have been kept for reference and treated
as something sacred. On certain official occasions it would be pro
duced as a means of identification or proof that the prescribed
costumes had been strictly adhered to. To this practical and
sensible plan the origin of the so-called tribal and household idols
of the Peruvians and of the Mexicans can doubtlessly be assigned.
Invented as an aid in the establishment of tribal-names and dress-
regulations and intimately connected with the entire system of
government, these huacas gradually became the representative of
the ancestor of the clan, its ''canting" arms and its sacred palla
dium. We are told that after the tribes had chosen their various
ancestors or origins, such as caves, hills, fountains, etc., they set
tled in the land and multiplied. Then, on account of having
k' issued or descended from stated localities, the people made hua
cas and places of worship of these, in memory of the origin of
their lineage . . . The huacas thejT use are in different shapes
Some say the first of their lineages were turned into fal
cons, condors and other animals or birds" (Molina ed. Hakluyt,
p. f>). A certain form of ancestor-cult was thus evolved in a
natural manner. " Idolatrous rites increased and people devoted
themselves to the worship of huacas . . . each village had
its huaca. The cult assumed such proportions under Ccapac Yu-
panqui that he exclaimed : l How many false gods are there in the
land, to my sorrow and the misfortune of my vassals I When
shall we see these evils remedied?' "

At the same time we find that clay or wooden figures continued
to be employed evidently as a method of keeping an accurate reg
ister of the population. In the capital, one building held dupli
cates of all the huacas throughout the land. When a ne\v province
was conquered the Inca carried its principal huaca to Cuzco. One
or more living representatives of the conquered tribe, wearing its
characteristic dress, were obliged to reside in the capital. In an
cient Mexico these ''living images of the gods" are one of the
most striking features of the native civilization and have been
persistently misunderstood, especially by modern authorities. As
these "living gods" are specially treated in the " Lyfe of the
Indians," I shall merely point out here that small clay portraits or
elligies of persons were made in Mexico at certain stages of an

140 KEY-NOTK OF ANCIKNT

individual's life and also after his death. These seem to have been
employed for statistical purposes.

In Mexico and Peru large numbers of small images were pre
served in each household and were under the charge of its chief or
" older brother," who was obliged to guard and render account of
them. Of course the Spanish conquerors took it for granted that
all of these were idols and, in their ignorance, destroved them
unmercifully. Once the native system of tribal organization is
understood, it becomes evident that an accurate register of all
members of a tribe was of utmost importance. By means of a
group of more or less skillfully-modelled figures or heads the size
of a family could be ascertained at a glance by the government
recorder. In the light of this recognition it seems more than
probable that the immense numbers of small clay heads of various
kinds, found in the u street of the dead" at the base of the great
pyramids of Teotihuacan, and elsewhere, indicate that, in these
localities, a periodical and official registration of deaths was care
fully carried on. This assumption is fully corroborated by the
conclusions I reached, in 1886, after making a minute study of a
large number of terra-cotta heads1 and ascertaining that numbers
of them were portraits of dead persons. The above inference is,
moreover, confirmed by the name of Teotihuacan, which means, lit
erally, u the place of the lords or masters of the teotle." The term
teotl was given to the head of a tribe, who constituted the living
image of the tribal ancestor. When he died he himself became
one of the tribal ancestors and all dead lords were termed teotle.

The foregoing data enlighten us as to the practical value of a
sternly enforced system of division and differentiation for the con
trol of the population, and of clay images of persons for statistical
purposes. We have seen that, during many centuries, the energy
of the rulers was directed towards making groups of people as
distinct and different from each other as possible. They were
rigidly kept apart and, in all assemblages, they occupied separate
positions, in a fixed order of relation to each other. "All the peo
ple of Cuzco came out according to their tribes and Tmeages . . .
and assembling in the great square . . . sat down on their
benches, each man according to the rank he held, the Ilanan-Cnzco

i The Terra-cotta Heads of Teotihuacan, American Journal ol Archaeology, Balti
more, ISSti.

570

AMKKIOAN CIVILIZATIONS. 141

on one side and the Ilurin-Cuzco on the other" (Molina ed. Ilak-
luyt, p. 26). Beside this dual division of the entire population,
under the separate rulerships of the Inca and Coya, who were
linked together, however, in a sacred and indissoluble union and
respectively represented Heaven and Earth, let us study the exec
utive administration of the religious and civil governments.

Two sets, each consisting of four rulers, next in rank to the
Inca and Coya, are described: Each quarter or Suyu was ruled
over by a u viceroy," or " Inca governor," entitled tucuyricoc =:
" he who sees all," or Capac. In the days of the Inca Iluayna
Capac the names of the four "viceroys" are recorded as having
been Capac = Achachic, Capac = Larico, Capac = Yochi, Capac
= Ilualcaya. These were obviously members of the Inca family
and next in rank to the Inca, who presided as supreme pontiff over
the religious government. The civil and tribal administration was
executed by four Curacas, each of which had charge of 10,000
persons belonging to the ayllus — tribes or lineages. The titles
of these four Curacas are recorded as : Hunu-Camayu or Cama-
yoc, Huaronca-Cainayu or Camayoc, Pachaca-Camayu or Camayoc,
Chunca-Camayu or Camayoc. As their titles show, they were the
chief accountants or recorders of statistics, which were recorded
by means of the quippus. Under them, in regular order there
were officers, who respectively had charge of f)00, 100, f>0 or 10
individuals. In the latter instance it is expressly stated that it
was always one man out of the ten who governed and rendered
account of the remaining nine. The four chief recorders dwelt in
Cuzco but " left it every year and returned in February to make
their report . . . bringing with them the tribute of the whole
empire. They also reported upon the administration every year
recording the births and deaths that had occurred among men and
nocks, the yield of crops and all other details, writh great minute
ness" (Polo de Ondegardo).

From the recorded details of organization wo learn that the
governmental scheme introduced by the Incas was based on the as
sumption that the standard population of the empire should num
ber 40,000 individuals under the civil rulership of 4 recorders, 40
first-grade officers, 400 second-grade officers, 4,000 third grade
officers — each of the last being responsible for nine individuals
besides himself. It is noteworthy that the three grades of oflicers
p. M. PAPERS i 37 577

142 KKV-NOTK OF ANC'IKNT

correspond to the threefold division of the entire produce of the
land, between the Inca, the Huaca and the Ayllu, equivalent to
the religions government, the civil government and the people —
to the Above1, Below and Middle. The minimal division of people
into groups of ten of which one was the governmental representa
tive corresponds, moreover, to the classification into the following
ten categories, according to their ages :

1. Mosoe-aparic : baby, " newly begun," " just born."

2. Saya-huarma : child, " standing boy," age. 2-6.

3. Macta-puric: k' child that can walk," tk 6-8

4. Itanta-requisic: '"bread-receiver," boy about 8.

5. Pucllac huarma : u playing boy." age S-16.

6. Cuca-pallac: il Coca pickers," kk 16-20.

7. Yma-hiiayna : u as a youth," light service, tk 20-25.
S. Puric : " able-bodied," tribute and

service, 'k 25-50.

0. Chaupi-rucca : elderly, light service, 4k 50-60.

10. Pufiuc-rucca : dotage, no work, 60 upwards.1

Although for statistical purposes, exact registers of each of these
groups were annually made by the recorders, it is evident that
the purics or " able-bodied " men constituted the most important
portion of the population. They naturally fell into two groups
consisting of the nobility and commoners, but scattered evidence
amply provides that they were strictly classified according to the
special service or tribute they rendered to the government. The
best, produce of each province was brought to Cuzco.

The inhabitants of each region were specially trained to render
certain services or to excel in particular industries — by this means
each tribe gradually became identified with its special industry or
aptitude. The necessity that the supply of their produce should
be constant and regular, must have necessitated the permanent
maintenance of a fixed number of workers at each branch of in
dustry, a fact which would give rise to rigid laws controlling the
liberty of the individual, forcing children to adopt their parents'
avocations and forbidding intermarriages between persons of dif
ferent provinces. As scattered mention is made of the following

1 For this valuable list 1 am indebted to the kindness of Sir Clements 15. Markham,
the President ol' the Royal (Je.i^i'aphical Society of (ireat Britain, who generously
allowed me to stndv some of his MS. notes on Ancient Peru.

AMKRK'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 143

general classification of the male population, I venture to note
them as follows, provisionally:

Nobility. Commoners.

1. lords, shepherds (of lamas),

2. priests, hunters,

3. warriors, farmers,

4. civil governors, artificers.

The female population was doubtlessly subdivided in an analo
gous manner, for it is expressly recorded that all marriageable girls
were kept in four different houses. Those of the first class, quali
fied as "the white virgins," were dedicated to the service of the
Creator, the Sun and the Inca ; the second were given in marriage
to the nobility; the third class married the Curacas or civil gov
ernors, and the last were qualified as '• black," and pertained to the
lower classes.

Caste division was never lost sight of — indeed one Inca went
so far as to order that all the people of the Below k' should flatten
the heads of their children, so that they should be long and slop
ing from the front." Thus they should ever be distinguishable
from the nobility and "yield them obedience." Although it is not
expressly stated, it may be inferred from actual specimens of
skulls which have been found that, in some localities, in order to
differentiate the two classes still more, members of the nobility
strove to mould the heads of their children in a high peak, so that
the}7 too should perpetually bear the mark of their rank. Whether
such a procedure would exert a correspondingly elevating or abas
ing influence upon the intellectual development of the two classes
is :i problem for anthropologists.

A very simple explanation of the reason why artificial deforma
tion of the skull was ever adopted, is obtainable when the all-
powerful dominion of a certain set of ideas is recognized. Many
other customs, still in practice amongst American tribes, are like
wise explained by the arbitrary division of population into classes
and categories. The Peruvian custom of bestowing one name
upon a child when it was one year old and another when it attained
maturity is the direct outcome of the classification of individuals
by age. The ceremonial observances which accompanied the be
stowal of these names were accompanied by a change of costume
which constituted the ollicial enrolment or advancement into an
other class. The existence of further systematic class-distinctions

579

144 KKY-XOTK OF ANOIKNT

is proven by the description of the picturesque ceremony performed

in the month of August at Cuzco :ind called "the driving out of
sickness." In the centre of the great square around the urn of
gold which typified the " central fountain" (precisely the idea ex
pressed by the name of Mexico), four hundred warriors assembled.
One hundred, representing one of the four ayllus, faced towards
each cardinal point and subsequently ran at full speed in its direc
tion, crying u Go forth all evils !"

We have now traced the idea of the Above and Below, Centre
and Four Quarters in Ancient Peru., It remains to be noted that
the capital itself, which was to be the image of the whole empire,
was primarily divided into two halves and four quarters, and sub
divided into 4X3 = 12 wards the names of which doubtlessly cor
responded with that of their inhabitants. When the sacred centre
of the capital is added to these it is clear that the City of Cuzco
was subdivided into as many parts as there were directions in
space, f. e. 13. It exemplified, therefore, an association of 2X10
= 20 categories of people classified according to ages, with thirteen
directions in space, and a general subdivision of all classes into four
parts. The Inca with the four Capacs and the Coya with the four
Camayocs formed two groups of five each, which could well have
been represented by a large central figure surrounded by four
smaller ones of equal size. By coloring these with red, yellow,
black and white, their assignment to the cardinal point could have
been expressed. The central figure could be painted in four col
ors, for only the Inca and his lineage could wear many-colored
garments, these being indicative that they represented the centre
or union of the four quarters.

Two important features of the system remain to be discussed :
We have studied the minute and methodical classification of the
entire population into distinct groups without touching upon the
practical reasons why this was done. We have analyzed the great
machinery of the Inca dominion as it lies broken and motionless.
I>ut endow the giant wheel with motion, introduce systematical
rotation into its every part, regulate the occupations of the people
by a fixed series of work-days and holidays. Send them forth to
their work and collect the products of their labor at set intervals,
iiixtifufa <i nd<'n<l<tr, and you will have set the machinery of state in
motion and realized how the classification of individuals according
lo rank', ages, and occupations was absolutely necessary in order to
580

AMKUK'AN < 1VILIZATIONS. 145

obtain a successful ami harmonious result. It has already been
shown that the institution of the calendar and establishment of
twelve festival periods of thirty days each, in a year, succeeded
the division of the people into groups and their assignment to fixed
places of abode.

''They commenced to count the year in the middle of INI ay, a few

days more or less, on the lirst day of the Moon in this

month they held the festivals of the Sun" (Molina ed. Hakluyt,
p. 10). I direct particular attention to the fact that it was the
new May moon which controlled the beginning of the religious
calendar, although the Incas observed the equinoxes and solstices
and the cult of the Sun was under their special care. The twelve
divisions of the year accord with the twelve wards of Cuzco sur
rounding the central enclosure which was always the place where
the festivals were held and the people congregated.

I have as yet found no account of the lesser divisions of time
in Peru, but note that the period of thirty days consisted of six;
periods of five days each, a subdivision which would obviously
accord with native habits of thought if associated with the six-
terrestrial directions in space and if a reunion of people and col
lection of produce from four quarters took place on every fifth day
in the capital. In my special work on the Calendar systems of
ancient America I shall be able to discuss more fully their intimate
indissoluble relation to the regulation of labor and control of the
food supply absolutely requisite for the great capital.

The idea of rotation was carried out in a ceremony described by
Molina. When the December moon was full, after having ploughed
their fields during twelve days, " all persons returned to Cuzco

the people went to a house called moro-uco, near the

houses of the Sun and took out a very long cable which was kept
there, woven in four colors, black, white, red and yellow, at the
end of which was a stout ball of red wool. Everyone took hold
of it, the men on one side, the women on the other, performing
the sacred dance called yaquayra. When they came to the square

they went round and round until they were in the shape

of a spiral shell. Then they dropped the cable on the ground and
left it coiled up like a snake. The people returned to their places
and those who had charge of the cable took it back to its house."
An extremely important instance of the application of the spiral
is preserved in an illustration in the Account of the Antiquities of

KKY-N<

OF ANCIENT

Peru by the native chronicler Salcamayhua (ed. Hakluyt, p. 10'J).
lie relates that the luca Hiuiyna-Capac, when lie reached the town
of Tumipampa. 4- ordered water to be brought from a river by bor
ing through a mountain, and making the channel enter the city by
curves in this way :

The illustration, reproduced here (fig. 46), exhibits an extremely
ingenious mode of irrigation which divided the country surround
ing the town into nine zones of land lying between currents of
water. These are cut through by an exit canal which, at the same
time, presumably supplied a direct, water-way for trallic to and
from the town. The association of the spiral form with irrigation
would not, perhaps, seem as important and significant did we not
know lhat the ancient Peruvians, as proven by Wiener, habitually

laid out the irrigation canals in their
maize-fields so as to form regular de
signs, some of which resembled those
illustrated on tig. 40, nos. 2, 4, G, 7,
which have been shown to signify the
union of the Above and Below, or
Heaven and Earth. In the Peruvian
irrigation canals the water supplied the
light lines and the earth the dark, and
when the small canals were full and
were observed in certain lights, they
must have resembled light blue or white
patterns running through the dark earth.
That their inventors and makers actually associated them with pro
found meaning and laid them from superstitious as well as practical
motives is obvious ; for. in Peru, as in Mexico, we find the period
ical union of the Heaven and Earth, of rain and earth celebrated
with ceremonial drinking of chicha, specially brewed for this period
which seems to have been the regularly appointed time for juvenile
match-making, by order of the Inca.

"• When the Inca gave women as wives thev were received be
cause it was the command of the Inca . . . because of this it
was considered that she was taken until death and she was received
on this understanding and never deserted" (Molina). 'k When the
Inca Rocca married his sister, six thousand people were married
on the next day" (Montesinos). In the festival called Ccapac
Ray mi, maidens who had attained womanhood offered bowls of
582

FIG. 46.

A.MKUK'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 147

fermented chicha to the youths who had just been admitted to the
ranks of the warriors.

During this festival the Priests of the Sun and of the Creator
brought a quantity of fuel, tied together in handfuls, and dressed
as a man and a woman . . . they were offered to the Creator,
the Sun and the Tnea and were burnt in their clothes together with
a sheep" (Molina).

Towards the end of the same mouth (November), feasts were
celebrated for the Hocks of the huacas, that they might multiply;
for which sacrifices were made throughout the kingdom. Ultimately
" public solemn sacrifices were made to the Creator, the Sun, the
Thunder and the Moon for all nations, that they might prosper and
multiply" (Molina). A few weeks later, an exemption from cere
monial bondage, for three months, commenced. Throughout Jan
uary, February and March no religious festival took place at Cuzco
— the farmers attended to their laud and the people were left at
liberty to pursue their various avocations uninterruptedly (Molina
ed. Hakluyt, pp. 51 and 52). I have already shown that the same
exemption from ceremonial bondc^ge during ninety to one hundred
days of the year was customary in Mexico ; and, in my note on
the Ancient Mexican Calendar System, communicated to the Con
gress of Americanists at Stockholm in 18'J4 (p. 1C), I explained
the reasons which had led me to infer that " the religious festivals
were concentrated in the ritual years of 2 GO days," which indeed
forms a unit, consisting of a complete set of combinations of the
numbers 13 and 20.

In Dr. Franz Boas' admirable monograph on the Social Organ
ization and secret societies of the Kwakiutl Indians (Washington,
1897, p. 418), it is shown that at the present day the clan system
is only in force during one division of the year. ki At the begin
ning of the winter ceremonial the social system is completely
changed. The period when the class system is in force is called
ba-xus. The period of the winter ceremonial is designated as
' the secrets,' ' making the heart good,' also ' brought down from
Above.' The Indians express this alternating of seasons by say
ing that in summer the ba-xus is on top, the secrets below, and
cfce versa in winter. During this time the place of the clans :s
taken by a number of secret societies; the spirits who had :,p-
peared to mythical ancestors give new names to the men to whom
they appear, but these names are only in use during the time when

583

148 KKY-ISOTK OF ANC1KNT

the spirits dwell amongst the Indians, i. ?., in the winter." There
fore from the moment when the spirits are supposed to be present,
all the summer names are dropped and the members of the nobility
take their winter mimes. The winter ceremonial societies are ar
ranged in two principal groups; these are subdivided into 2 X 10
~ 20 groups according to age and sex.

Dr. Boas distinguishes u three classes of tribal names and of
clan names, viz., such as are collective forms of the names of the
ancestors, names taken from the region inhabited by the tribe or
clan and names of honour. . . . , Each clan derives its origin
from a mythical ancestor . . . the present system of tribes
and clans is of recent growth . . . their numbers have under
gone considerable changes in historical times." A careful study of
the material presented by Dr. Boas shows, however, that theground-
plans of the entire social fabric reared by the Kwakiutl Indians
closely resembles that on which the stately Maya, Mexican and
Peruvian civilizations were reared.

Returning to Peru, it is particularly noteworthy that the above
mentioned solemn sacrifices to the Creator, the Sun and Thunder,
and Moon and Earth, held in November, were thus offered to them
jointly in one consecrated place, whereas, at other seasons, the
cult was performed separately and on different days, before the
emblems of the Above and Below.

Notwithstanding the moderation and tolerance which seem to
have been characteristic of the Inca government, and the apparent
equality and accord of the two cults, the heads of which were the
Inca and Coya, we find evidences of discord in the historical rec
ords. The Inca empire had scarcely been established for more
than a few centuries1 when we discern signs of a serious rebellion
under the leadership of the Chuchi-capac, the chief of the South
ern province or Colla-suyu, pertaining to the Below. From the
taunts he uttered in the presence of the Inca on a festive occasion
and which have been recorded verbally by Salcamayhua, it is clear
that the chief of the Collas asserted that he (and the people of his
province) actually practised sun-cult although "his throne was of

1 " From what can be gathered and conjectured in considering the traditions of (lie
present time, it is not more than 350 to 400 years since the Incas only possessed and
ruled over the valley of Cuzco as far as Ureas, a distance of six leagues and to the
valley of Yucay, which is not more than 5 leagues . . . The historical period can
not be placed further back than 4(!0 years at the earliest" (Polo de Ondegardo 1550-

1000).

584

A.MKKK'AX CIVILIZATIONS. 149

silver;" that is to say, notwithstanding the fact that moon-cult
pertained to the quarter to which he was assigned, namely, to the
Below. He justifies his departure from moon-cult by taunting the
Inca that he, in turn, did not adhere strictly to sun-cult but wor
shipped the impersonal Creator. This struggle between the ancient
native sun-cult and star-cult and this religious dissension, the rea
son for which is apparent, initiated the long period of internal
strife and warfare which ultimately made the Spanish Conquest
such an easy matter.

During the course of these wars the Peruvian Inca, on one occa
sion, avenged himself for a supposed insult by having drums made
of the skins of some of the enemies' messengers and by sending
back others of these *" dressed as women," that is to say degraded
from their positions as warriors or noblemen to the ranks of the
commoners. A similar degradation, inflicted upon the Tlatelolcau
rebels by the Mexicans has already been mentioned and can only
be fully understood when the class-system is recognized.

From this and analogous instances it is evident that, admirable
as the scheme of government seems to have been as a means of
laying the foundations of civilization, and of teaching primitive
people agriculture, stability, law and order, yet the very features
which rendered it so efficient at first became, eventually, the cause
of its gradual disintegration, as soon as a certain degree of cul
ture prosperity was attained by the community. One mode of
avoiding the evils of over-population and of ridding the capital
of its restless, and enterprising or troublesome members, was the
system of Mitimaes or colonists. This merits particular attention,
because it formed an integral part of the marvellous and widespread
scheme of organization we have been studying, and therefore helps
to an understanding of the customary means by which civilization
was spread in past ages throughout the American continent.

As the population of Cuzco increased and greater food supplies
were found necessary, the Incas extended their dominions by a
series of conquests. "As soon as they had made themselves
lords of a province they left Mitimaes or settlers there, who caused
the natives to live in communities " and established a small centre
of local government on the pattern of Cuzco. Mitimaes or colo
nists were also sent, from different provinces, to live on the fron
tiers, bordering on hostile countries, so as to aid in defending them
against the enemies. The establishment of colonies in distant dis-

585

JO(J KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

tricts was therefore a tried and familiar custom of those who pos
sessed the wonderful governmental plan we have been studying.

I have shown that the greater the prosperity of a civilized com
munity organized on this plan, the more imperative the necessity
of founding new colonies would sometimes become. The urgent
need of greater food supplies would lead to the sending out of
expeditions for the purpose of surveying the surrounding country
and ascertaining the quality of its produce. In his MS. Noticia,
Padre Oliva speaks of an exploring party which was sent out by
the ancestor of the Incas with the injunction to return in a year.
After a few years had passed and none of the party returned, a
second expedition was sent out in search of the first and this led
to the final establishment of the luca dominion in a promising re
gion. Saliagun recounts how a Maya colony was established at
Panuco ; Montezuma himself related to Cortes that he and his lin
eage were descendants of colonists from distant parts; traditions
of culture-heroes who established civilization amongst them abound
amongst Central American tribes ; finally, Peru is shown to have
been civilized by rulers who carried out, systematically, a ready-
made plan in a comparatively short time. Whence did all these cul
ture-heroes emanate, carrying the identical method and system into
widely separated districts and establishing centres of civilization
in the richest and most fertile parts of the American Continent?

Documentary evidence certainly justifies the inference that the
civilization of Peru itself was due to just such a deliberately exe
cuted plan of colonization, which gradually extended southwards
and ultimately took root and flourished in the most favorably
situated locality.

Leonce Angrand, who cites Acosta, Montesinos, Garcia, Botu-
rini, Valera, Garcilaso de la Vega, Gomara, Balboa, Paz Soldan,
d'Oi bigny, Zarate, Cieza de Leon, Torquemada, Herrera, Velasco,
Rivero and Tschudi, Gibbon, Stevenson, Castelnau, Desjardins,
Villavicencio, Roman and others, unites their testimony in the Col-
lowing sentence : " It is therefore solely towards the North, in the
elevated mountainous region, that researches should be directed
[in order to ascertain the origin of the Peruvian civilization]. As
soon as this is done innumerable proofs appear of the residence,
in extremely ancient times, of people who can scarcely belong to
other races than those who founded Cuzco and Tiahuanaco. It is
therefore, from the North that these hardy pioneers of humanity

58*5

AMKKK'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 151

came, from distant civilizations, anil it is certainly by going north
wards Mint one must look for traces of one or the other current of
civilization. The inexhaustible force of expansion of the Juca
Empire extended to the North as well us in other directions."

Angraiid also mentions a line "of prehistoric ruins which ex
tend northwards from Peru and display the essentially character
istic outlines of the Mexican Teocallis or temples."1

Garcilaso de la Vega, citing Padre Bias Valera, goes so far as to
state that the race, which introduced human sacrifices and ritual
istic cannibalism into Peru, "had come from the region of Mexico,
peopled the regions of Panama and the Isthmus of Darien and all
those great mountains which extend between Peru and the new
kingdom of Granada" (the present Nicaragua).-

According to Padre Anello Oliva, whose manuscript notes on
Peru are preserved in the British Museum Library, the immediate
ancestors of the Incas were colonists who came from unknown parts
either by laud or by sea, and settled at Caracas (Atlantic coast),
whence they gradually spread southwards. As his authority for this
statement , he cites original manuscripts which had been placed in his
hands by a Spanish missionary of high standing. Among these was
a relation by a Quipucamayoc or " accountant by means of quip-
pus," named Catari, who had been a chronicler of the Incas. His
forefathers had occupied the same post and had handed down the
above record as having been related to them by their predecessors.

This account does not disagree with that of Salcamayhua who
states that " all the nations of the empire had come from beyond
Potosi, in four or five armies, arrayed for war and settled in the
districts as they advanced."

'Whatever opinions may be held of the relative reliability of the
Spanish chroniclers one thing is certain : that not one ventures
the statement that the Inca civilization was gradually evolved by the
native race of Peru and that all agree in assigning its introduction
to an alien race of rulers who came from the North, and gradually
united the scattered indigenous tribes together under a central gov
ernment. Americanists will doubtless agree with me in stating
that, until the past history, antiquities and languages of all tribes
inhabiting South and Central America have been exhaustively

1 Lettre sur Ics Antiquites de Tiahuanaco, 18CK, pp. !>, 17, 19.

2 Bias Valera, apud Garcilaso de la Vo-xa, Comentarios Heales, Lisboa, KiOO, lib. I,
cap. XT, pp. 13, 14; lib. II, raj), vi, p. 42. See also Garcia, Orison <ie los Indios. Ma
drid 1729, lib. iv, cap. xv, p. 313.

5*7

152 KKY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

studied, no absolutely satisfactory conclusion can be formed as to
when and how civilization was carried to Peru.

On the other hand, even in the present preliminary stage of in
vestigation, there are certain undeniable facts which, if brought to
notice at this early date, may prove of inestimable value indirect-
ing future research. One of these facts will doubtless appear to
many as strange and inexplicable but as noteworthy as it appears
to me.

In Cristoval de Molina's account of the fables and rites of the
Incas1 already cited, a fable is related concerning the Inca Yu-
panqui, the Conqueror, who extended the domain of the Peruvian
empire and instituted the worship of a creator who, unlike the sun,
could rest and light up the world from one spot.

" They say that, before he succeeded [to rulership], he went one
day to visit his father Uiracocha Inca, who was at Sacsahuana,
five leagues from Cuzco. As he came up to a fountain called
Susur-puquio, he saw a piece of crystal fall into it, within which
he beheld the figure of an Indian in the following shape :

" Out of the back of his head there issued three very brilliant
rays like those of the Sun. Serpents were twined around his arms,
and on his head there was the llautu or royal fringe worn across
the forehead of the Inca. His ears were bored and he wore the
same earpieces as the Inca, besides being dressed like him. The
head of a lion came out from between his legs and on his shoulders
was another lion whose legs appeared to join over the shoulders of
the man. A sort of serpent also twined over the shoulders.

" On seeing this figure the Inca Yupanqui fled, but the figure of
the apparition called him by his name from within the fountain
saying, 4 Come hither, my son, and fear not, for I am the Sun,
thy father. Thou shalt conquer many nations : therefore be care
ful to pay great reverence to me and remember me iu thy sacri
fices.' The apparition then vanished, while the piece of crystal
remained. The Inca took care of it and they say that he after
wards saw everything he wanted in it. As soon as he was Lord
he ordered a statue of the Sun to be made as nearly as possible
resembling the figure he had seen in the crystal. He gave orders
to the heads of the provinces in all the lauds he had conquered,
that they should make grand temples, richly endowed, and he com-

1 Narratives of the Kites and laws of the Incas, translated by Clements IJ. Markham,
C. P>., F. K. S., ed. Hakluyt Society, pp. 10-13.

588

AMKHICAX CIVILIZATIONS. 153

manded all his subjects to adore and reverence the new Deity, as
they had heretofore worshipped the Creator . . . It is related
that all his conquests were made in the name of the Sun, his Father,
and of the Creator. This Inca also commanded all the nations
they conquered to hold their huacas in great veneration . . ."

It is a startling but undeniable fact that one of the beautiful
bas-reliefs found at Santa Lucia Cozumalhuapa near the western
coast of Guatemala, about 1,200 miles to the north of the latitude
of Cuzco, answers in a most striking manner to the description
given of Inca Yupauqui's vision.1

Amongst the thirteen sculptured slabs discovered at Santa Lucia,
there are six entire slabs and the fragment of another which are
of almost uniform size and may be ranked among the finest ex-
examples of aboriginal art which have as yet been found on the
American Continent. They represent seven different renderings
of the same theme. On each slab an individual wearing elabo
rate insignia is represented as standing with one arm raised and
his head thrown back in the act of gazing upwards towards a
celestial figure which seems to be descending towards him. The
arms and heads of these nobly conceived figures are visible, but
in each case the faces seem to issue from a highly ornate symbol,
which is different in each one, just as the insignia of each individ
ual also varies in detail. At the same time it is obvious that the
seven slabs commemorate as it were an identical circumstance, —
the apparition of the same divinity to seven different individuals,
six of which are represented with the sign of speech coming forth
from their mouths in precisely the same manner. The general re
semblance, notwithstanding the distinct individuality of each
bas-relief, suggests that they commemorate the visions seen under

1 it is the merit of the late distinguished philologist Dr. Buschmann, in his invalu
able work on A /tee, names of localities to have pointed out that although the Cakchi
quel language is now spoken at Cozumalhuapa or Cotzunialguapan, its name is
unquestionably Nahuatl (Co/amalo -apan)- laber A/tekische Ortsiiamen, vn, p. ,°>4.

The largest number of illustrations of the beuitiful bas reliefs found in the above
locality have been published by M. Herman Strebel of Hamburg, whose valuable
publications and splendid collections of ancit nt Mexican antiquities, preserved at
Berlin and Hamburg, are well known. Die Steinsculptures von Santa Lucia Co/timal
huapa (Guatemala) in Museum fur Volkerkunde. Hamburg, 1S94. Jalirbuch der
IIambur<?ischen Wissenschaftlichen Anstallen, XT.

Three of these remarkable \>;i< -reliefs arc figured in the valuable publication bv
Gehelmrath A. Kastian : Steinsculpturen aus Guatemala, Berichte der K(iuif;licheu
Museen /u Berlin, 1SS2. Dr. Mabel's drawings were published in 1S7S, in the ±>d vol.
of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge.

Casts of these bas reliefs are on exhibition in the 1'eabody Museum.

589

154

KKY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

similar circumstances by seven distinct personages of the same
rank and position. Involuntarily one thinks of the period of en
forced fast and vigil which marks the attainment of manhood and
is still obligatory amongst North American tribes, amongst whom
it only ends when they have entered into communion with their
totemic ancestor. I am inclined to view these commemorative
tablets as commemorating an analogous rite and perpetuating the
visions of successive members of one ruling family, or clan. The
divinity, invariably associated with serpent
symbols, seems to be Quetzalcoatl, the
divine twin or serpent, exhibiting in some
cases the emblem of the Sun, but evidently
revealing itself to each personage under a
slightly different form.

The accompanying drawing (fig. 47) of
one of the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs, repro
duced from Dr. Habel's work, will sullice
to establish its resemblance to Pad re Oliva's
description of the apparition seen by the
youthful Inca Yupanqui. After a careful
comparison of the text to the sculptured
bas-relief, it must be admitted that a more
graphic and impressive illustration of the
episode can scarcely be imagined. Its
lower portion displays a youthful ligure,
looking upwards and exhibiting a necklace,
the circular ear-pieces and royal fringe or
llautu of the Incas. From his shoulders
hangs the skin of a puma or lion with its
head downwards. Molina relates thai lion-
skins with the heads were specially pre
pared for the ceremonial when youths were
admitted into the ranks of knighthood, the last rite of which was
the piercing of their ears and the enlargement of the orific.e made.1

" The Bkins of lions, with the lie;uls, had been prepared, with #old ear-pieees in the
ears and golden Icelhin place of the real teeth which had been pulled out. In the
paws were certain rinirs of .u'old. Those who were dressed or invested with these
skins put on the head and neck of the lion so as to cover their own and the skin of
the bodj- of the lion huu.i;- from the shoulders." op. cit. p. 4f>.

The wearing of puma and ocelot skins by one of the two liiirhest grades of war
riors in Mexico is too well known to need further mention here.

590

FIG. 47.

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 1 f) f)

The youth wears a singular head-dress, or diadem, consisting of
what appears to be an eye with conventionally drawn upper lid,
surmounted by three pointed rays, behind which some long wavy
feathers are visible.1

The celestial apparition to which the youthful figure is looking
up, likewise exhibits the same necklace, pieces, and royal fringe
of the Incas. Indistinctly though some of the details are given,
it seems as though intertwined serpents encircled its head and pos
sibly its neck. The head of the vision is surmounted by an en
larged rendering of the conventionally drawn eyelid and three
pointed rays which form the diadem of the youthful knight. The
face of the vision occupies, however, the place of the eye on the
diadem. In this connection it is interesting to note that in the
Nahuatl language, which, as (op. et loc. eft.) proven by Busch-
mann, was spoken in Guatemala where the bas-relief was found,
the word ixtli designates face, whilst ixtololotli signifies eye. Situ
ated between the right elbow of the celestial figure and the diadem
of the youth, there is a diminutive reproduction of the eye, eyelid
and three rays, with the addition that what appear like two (or
three?) drops of water or two eyes descend from it towards a
square symbol which resembles the Mexican sign for tlalli = earth,
whilst the eye symbol is closely analogous to a well-known Mexi
can sign which has been interpreted as a star, and has, but not as
yet satisfactorily, been identified with the planet Venus. Without
pausing to study this sign as it appears in ancient Mexico I point
out that the position and mode of representation of the upper
figure in the bas-relief sufficiently show that it is an image of a
celestial being or vision in the act of receiving the supplication of
a youth who is wearing divine insignia. There being a possibility
that some of these accessories may be somewhat indistinct in the
original bas-relief now preserved at the Royal Kthnogrnphical
Museum at Berlin, I do not venture to draw special attention to
the possibility of further points of resemblance between the Peru
vian tradition and this Guatemalan sculpture.

i hi connection with the three points proceeding from the eye, the Mexican symliol
for .-tar, I would draw attention to the fact that in the latitude of Santa Lucia 01 Iv
tliree equidistant positions of Ursa Major, and, possibly, of Ursa Minor, would >e
observable, the constellations being below the northern hori/.on when Iving betwe MI
it and Polaris. The symbolical three points could have thn- originated in the saiie
way as the triskeles in other countries, from observation of the identical phenoineiK n.

591

156 KEY-NOTE OF ANC'IENT

At the same time I shall not omit allusion to the wavy figure
winding upwards from the waist of the supplicant, which recurs in
four out of the seven slabs. It may yet prove to answer to the
description of " a sort of serpent," which is recorded as twining
over the shoulders of the vision who was " dressed like thelnca."
The lion's head which appears in the drawing to cover the left hand
of the supplicant and the fact that his left foot only, in some cases,
wears a sandal, are important and interesting features to which I
shall revert further on.

Without attempting to offer any explanation of the truly re
markable fact that a bas-relief exhumed in Guatemala should so
strikingly agree with a description preserved in a Peruvian tradi
tion, I shall merely point out a second similar though much less
remarkable case of agreement.

Padre Oliva records two instances in which a "royal eagle"
figures in connection writh members of the Tnca dynasty. One of
these relates to the ancestors of Manco Capac, the reputed founder
of Cuzco. II is great-grandmother, being abandoned by her hus
band, attempted to sacrifice her young son to Pachacamac. A
royal eagle descended, carried him away in his talons and set him
down in an island off the Pacific coast, named Guayan, " because it
was covered with willows." Oliva explains this tradition ns a fan
ciful way of recording the fact that the youth's life was probably
endangered, and that he had fled and taken refuge on an island.
At the age of twenty-one he made his way back to the continent
on a raft, but was seized by hostile people. His life was, how
ever, saved by the daughter of a chieftain who returned with him
to the island. Her name is given as Ciguar, a word strangely like
the Nahuatl Cihuatl = woman. She bore him a son who was named
Atau (rf. Ahau and Ahua = Maya and Mexican words for lord
or chief), who was, in time, the father of Manco Capac, the re
puted founder of civilization in Peru. When the latter was a
child u an eagle approached him and never left him." In view of
these traditions it is interesting to note that, on two of the, Santa
Lucia bas-reliefs figured by Ilabel and reproduced by Mr. Her
mann Strebel in pi. ir, fig. 13, of his extremely useful and com
prehensive monograph on the bas-reliefs of Santa Lucia, an eagle
is represented in connection with a figure wearing divine insignia.

On one of the seven analogous slabs representing a personage
502

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 157

addressing- a supplication to n celestial apparition, a large eagle or
vulture is actually sculptured behind the supplicant, being, as it
were, his individual totem (Strebel, PL n, fig. 5).

A drawing of a part of another slab (Strebel, PI. n, fig. 13)
displays an eagle or vulture holding in his beak the body of a
bearded personage who wears a neck orname*nt and circular ear
pieces, and from whose head two serpents hang. This last detail
associates him with the celestial figure which usually displays
knotted serpents on or above its head, suggesting its connection
with Quetzalcoatl, the divine title of the Supreme Being and also
of the supreme rulers of the Mexicans. It is curious to find in
Peru a tradition recording that, when "the Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui
undertook the conquest of the Antisuyus with 100,000 men, their
Huaca sent forth fire and stopped the passage with a fierce ser
pent which destroyed many people. The Inca raised his eyes to
heaven and prayed for help with great sorrow, and a furious eagle
descended, and seizing the head of the serpent raised it on high,
and then hurled it to the ground. In memory of this miracle the
Inca ordered a snake to be carved in stone on the wall of a
terrace in this province, which was called Aucapirca." When
divested of all fanciful details, the foregoing Peruvian traditions
seem to show that the eagle was the totem of one or more of the
Incas and that the serpent was the totem of a tribe which was con
quered by the Incas. It is likewise recorded by Padre Oliva that
the Inca named Mayta Capac Amaru ordered his shield to be painted
with weapons and a serpent = Amaru, " because he had killed one
in the Andes and therefore took it for his surname."

It is impossible for any Mexicanist to read the foregoing texts
without recalling that, in the City of Mexico, there is an unex
plained bas-relief which was put up by the Spaniards after the
Conquest but evidently figures a native tradition. It represents an
eagle bearing in his talons a personage, wearing a diadem, be
neath whom is a group of native weapons.1 The arms of Mexico
representing an eagle holding a serpent in its talons and resting on
a cactus, is too well known to require comment and recalls the Pe
ruvian tradition of the eagle of the Incas conquering the serpent-
totem of a hostile people.

Striking as these undeniable resemblances undoubtedly are, they

1 Tliis hns-relief is reproduced in vol. in of the Anales del Museo Nacional, p. 302,
and is discussed by Sefior Sanehe/.

P. M. PAPERS I 38 r,f)3

158 KKY-NOTK OF ANCIKNT

would not. by themselves, justify the immediate conclusion that an
actual direct connection existed between the Peruvian traditions
and the Guatemalan and Mexican bas-reliefs which almost seem
to illustrate the same or analogous incidents. At the same time
they prove that, besides their scheme of government, the Incas had
certain myths or traditions in common with the civilized tribes
inhabiting Central America.

It is well to bear in mind that the situations of Cn/co in Peru
and Santa Lucia in Guatemala are both adjacent to the Pacific coast
with an intervening distance of about 27.i degree's of latitude.
But 15 degrees, however, lie between the northern boundary of mod
ern Peru and the southern boundary of Nicaragua where, as proven
by Buschmann, innumerable names of localities in the Nahuatl
language testify to its ancient occupation by a Nahuatl-speaking
race.

It is noteworthy that this eminent philologist observed how the
name employed to designate the bamboo bed of the Cacique Aga-
tcite, in Nicaragua, " barbacoa," was the same as that of the wooden
bed or litter used by the Inca in Peru (op. cit. p. 750). Busch
mann likewise identified the word galpon r= great hall or house.
He also expressed the opinion that "the Quechua word pam.pa
resembles the Mexican amilpampa eliecntl — the south wind, but
the Mexican is formed by the affixes pan and pa and the Quechua
substantive means an even, open plain. At the same time this
meaning and form could be derived from the Mexican aflixes "
(Buschmann, Ueber Aztekische Ortsnamen in, 7, p. 627).

Following this precedent I have ventured to search for further
resemblances between Nahuatl and Quechua words, and one of the
remarkable results I obtained was the discovery that the well-
known Quechua name for colonists = Mitimaes, the meaning of
which, in Quechua, is not forthcoming, seems to be connected in
sound and meaning with the Nahuatl Ce-mitime = sons of one
mother (Molina's dictionary) . It is superfluous to point out how
appropriate this designation would have been for the colonists who
invariably founded fresh centres of civilization on the plan of the
central metropolis. A brief comparative table, the result of an
investigation which lays no claim to be more than a rudimentary
attempt, is published as an appendix to this paper, with the hope
that it may stimulate philologists to supersede it by exhaustive
studies of the subject. A careful examination of the table tends
5<H

A.MKRH'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 159

to prove that certain Nahuatl, Quechua and Maya words had a
common origin and shows that a closer connection existed between
the Nahuatl and Quechua languages than between Nahnatl and
Maya or the Quechua and Maya.

I shall have occasion to refer to several of the words I have
tabulated. At present I would draw attention to an analogy which
bears directly on the subject of this paper and is of utmost inter
est and importance. If carefully studied it will be seen that the
title " Pacha Yachacliic," applied in Pern to the Creator, proves to
be allied in sound and meaning to the Mexican title Yaca-tecuh-
tli, "the lord who guides or governs." According to Sahagun,this
was u the god of the traders or traveller-merchants." lie had
live divine brothers and one sister, each of which was separately
worshipped by some travellers, whilst others, on their safe return
from distant and dangerous expeditions, offered sacrifices to the
whole group collectively. I leave it to each reader to make his
own inference as to whether this celestial " traveller's guide " with
his six brethren can have been other than Polaris and Ursa Minor.
The difference in the magnitudes of this constellation would natu
rally give rise to the idea of a group composed of individuals of
different ages and sizes ; the " little sister " probably being the
smaller of the four intermediate stars of the constellation and
suggesting tales of adventures relating to the mythical sister of
six brothers.

It is superfluous to emphasize how natural it would have been
to offer a thanksgiving to the ;' traveller's star " on returning from
a distant voyage, but I will point out that for coast navigation be
tween Guatemala and Nicaragua and Peru, the adoption of Polaris
as a guide was and is a matter of course. It is well to bear in
mind that we are dealing here with navigation north and south,
along a sheltered coast, for a distance not exceeding that of the
coast-line between Gibraltar and Hamburg. An instructive ex
ample of primitive navigation, under analogous circumstances, lias
been communicated to me, from personal observation, by Com
mander Barber of the United States Navy.

Native traders, who navigate north and south in small crafts
along the coast between Ceylon and Karashee, still use, at the
present day, an extremely primitive method of estimating latitude,
which is entirely based upon observations of the pole-star. Their
contrivance consists of a piece of wood four inches square, through

1()U KEY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

wliich a liole is bored and a piece of cord, witli knots at intervals,
is passed. The square is held at arm's length and the end of the
cord is held to the point of the navigator's nose in a horizontal
line, the height being so adjusted that the pole-star is observed in
contact with the upper edge of the piece of wood. There are as
many knots in the cords as there are ports habitually visited, and
according to the length of the cord required for the observation
of Polaris in the said position, the mariner knows to which port
he is opposite.

According to Sir Clements B. Markham,1 the original inhabitants
of the Peruvian coast fished in boats made of inflated sealskins.
It is well known that the coast-tribes of Mexico and Central
America employed boats of various kinds and some of great size.
The Mexican tradition relates that the culture hero Quetzalcoatl de
parted in a craft lie had constructed and which is designated as a
coatlapechtli — coa = coatl = serpent or twin, tlapechtli =. raft.
It is open to conjecture whether this construction, "in which he sat
himself as in a boat," may be regarded as a sort of double or twin
raft, or a boat made of serpent or seal ( ?) skin. In order to form
any opinion, the name for seal in the Nahuatl and other languages
spoken by the coast tribes should first be ascertained' and com
pared with the native names for serpent.

The Maya colonists who founded the colony on the Mexican
coast, and are known as the Huaxtecans, are described as having
transported themselves thither by boats from Yucatan. In the na
tive Codices and in the sculptured bas-relief at Chichen-Itza, there
are, moreover, illustrations of navigation by boats. As dependent
upon Polaris as their East Indian colleagues of to-day, it is but
natural that the ancient Mexican traders by land or sea expressed
their gratitude by offerings to Polaris and Ursa Minor.

Let us now return to Peru and examine whether there is any
proof that the " Teacher or Guide of the World," the Supreme Be
ing of the Incas, was identical with the " Lord who guides " revered
by the Mexican navigators.

I have already demonstrated that in ancient America the native
scheme of religion and government was but the natural outcome
of certain ideas suggested by the observation of Polaris and the
c i re u m polar constellations. I have likewise quoted the remarkable
qualification of a supreme divinity made by Inca Ynpanqui, who

1 Article Tern, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
590

A.MKKICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 1G1

raised a temple in Cuzco to the Creator who, superior to the sun,
could rest and light the world from one spot. It is an extremely
important and significant fact that the principal doorway of this
temple opened to the north,1 and that the kt true Creator " is alluded
to as an invisible power, the knowledge of which was transmitted
by the Incas from father to son. Thus Salcamayhua records that
on one occasion the young Iiicu Ccapac Yupanqui exclaimed " I
now feel that there is another Creator of all things [than that
worshipped in the Andes], as my father Mayta Ccapas Incti has
indeed told me."'-2 Considering that in the latitude of Cuzco, sit
uated as it is 14° belowr the equator, Polaris is invisible, the con
ditions thus recorded as existing in Peru are exactly those which
might be expected to exist if a religion founded on pole-star wor
ship had been carried southward to a region in which the star itself
was invisible. The orientation of the temple would designate the
north as the sacred region and the star-god would become an invisi
ble power whose very existence would have become traditional and
necessarily be accepted on faith by native-born Peruvians and con
verted sun- and moon-worshippers.

It is a remarkable fact that a descendant of the Incas has fur
nished us with actual proof that the Supreme Creator revered at
Cuzco was not only associated with a star, but also with the figure
of a cross, each branch of which terminated in a star. We are
indebted to the native chronicler Salcamayhua for some extremely
curious drawings, which are reproduced here from his account of
the Antiquities of Peru.3 In treating of the primitive astronomy
in America in my special paper on the native calendar, I shall refer
to these in greater detail. For my present purpose it suffices to
designate the following figures.

Salcamayhua records that the founder of the Peruvian Empire,
Maiico Capac, ordered the smiths to make a tlat plate of fine gold,
of oval shape, which was set up as an image of the Creator (o/>.
tit. p. 76). The Inca Mayta Ccapac, lt who despised all created
things, including the sun and moon," and " ordered his people to
pay no honour to them," caused the plate to be renewed which his
" great grandfather had put up, fixing it afresh in the place where

1 Gareiluso de la Ve.ura, The Royal Commentaries of tin- Incas, Hakluyt ed. vol. i,
p. 270.

- Rites and La\v> of the Inca-, ed. Ilakluyi, p. s<;.
1 Rites and Laws of the Incas. ed. Hakluyt. pp. 77. s-J.

5!) 7

162

KKV-NOTK <>K ANCIKNT

it had been before. He rebuilt the ' house of gold' and they
say that he caused things to be placed round the plate, which I have
shown, that it may be seen what these heathens thought." The cen
tral figure on this plate consists of the oval image of the Creator,
fig. 48, c. Close to its right are images designated by the text as
representing the sun and morning star. To the left are the moon
and the evening star. Above the oval and touching it, is a group
of five stars forming a cross, with one star in the centre. Be
low it is a cross figure formed by lines uniting four stars. In
this case, instead of being in the middle, the fifth star is attached
to the lower edge of the oval, which is designated as u the image of
Uiracocha Pacha-Yachachic, the teacher of the World." Outside
of the plate is what appears to be an attempt to explain more
clearly the relative positions of the group of live stars to the oval

FIG. 48.

plate (lig. 48, a). It represents the oval and one star in the cen
tre of a cross formed by four stars. The question naturally sug
gests itself whether the group of five stars forming a cross may
not represent the Southern Cross, popularly called the pole-star of
the south and which consists of four principal stars, one of which
is of the first and two of the second magnitude. This possibility
opens out a new field of inquiry, and calls for the statement of the
following facts, which I quote from Amedee Guillemin's Handbook
of Popular Astronomy, edited by J. Norman Lockyer and revised
by Richard A. Proctor.1

" In [our] enumeration of the circumpolar constellations of the
South, we have said nothing of the stars situated at the Pole itself.
The reason is simple; there are none deserving mention, and with
the exception of one star in Hydne, none approach the third mag-

Tlie Heavens

London. Richard Bentley and Son. 1883. pp. 287-289.

51)8

AMEKM'AX CIVILIZATIONS. 1G3

nitude. There is not then, ill the southern sky, any star analogous
to Polaris in the northern heavens." M. Guillemin proceeds to
explain, however, thai this poverty of the polar regions is singu
larly compensated for by the stars of the equatorial zone. It seems
more than probable that primitive astronomers or their descend
ants, who had been reared in a knowledge of the northern Polaris
and of the periodical motion of the circumpolar constellations,
should continue their observations in whatever latitude they found
themselves. It seems possible that they may have observed the
Southern Cross and recognized its closeness to the pivot or centre
of rotation ; but from personal experience and observation I can
vouch for the fact that this constellation could never have produced
upon primitive man the powerful impression caused by Ursa Major
and Cassiopeia revolving around Polaris. It is, of course, impos
sible to conclude to what extent the ancient Peruvians revered the
Southern Cross. It sullices for the present to establish the incon
trovertible facts that the image of the motionless Creator, set up
by the Incas, was associated with stars and with the cross and that
the door of the Cuzco Temple, where this image was kept, faced
the north, the direction whence, according to native traditions, the
culture-heroes had come to Peru.

The following data furnish further important proof that cer
tain peculiar ideas, symbols and metaphors were held in common
by the civilizations of Peru, Central America and Mexico. Re
turning to the bas-relief (fig. 47), I recur to an interesting feature,
which I have already pointed out, namety, that the left arm of
the personage terminates in a tiger's or puma's head. In connec
tion with this peculiarity it is interesting to note that the native
historian Ixtlilxochitl cites his illustrious ancestor and namesake,
the Ome Tochtli Ixtlilxochitl of Texcoco, as addressing his young
son Nezalhualcoyotl as " my dearly beloved son, tiger's arm."1 As
the young prince is referred to in the same chapter as " the boy
Acolmiztli [= tiger's arm] Nezalhualcoyotl," it is obvious that the
metaphor constituted a title preceding the actual name. It was
Nezalhual-coyotl who instituted the worship of Tloquenahuaque,
the true Creator, and discountenanced human sacrifices.

If the other analogous Santa Lucia slabs be also examined it
will be seen that although the positions of the bodies and arms
vary, and the form of the head is different in each instance, it is

1 Ilisturia Chichinieca, chMp. xix.

1C4 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

invariably the left arm that terminates in the individual emblem.
This sort of consecration of the left hand seems particularly sig
nificant for the following reason : Padre A nello Oliva records that
the Inca Yupanqui, the founder of Cuzco and the same whose vis
ion agrees so strangely with the bas-relief, was surnamed Lloque =
the left-handed,1 and was noted for having visited the whole em
pire three times. His reign was long and prosperous, and he left
a record as a conqueror and builder. He likewise sent his son
Mayta-Capac to visit the whole empire, accompanied by sages and
councillors. I recall here it was Yupanqui who proclaimed to the
sun-worshippers of Peru, the existence and superiority of an im
mutable Creator.

I have already shown how, in Peru, it was a dictum that the
upper division of the empire was to bear the same ideal relation
to the lower as that of an elder brother to a younger or a right
hand to the left. It is, therefore, possible to infer that, on cere
monial occasions when it is recorded that the Hunan Cuzco and
Ilurin Cuzco people were stationed at either side of the Inca, the
Hunan or chieftains constituting the nobility were to his right and
the Hurin people or lower class, to his left.

It is truly remarkable that it is a passage in the Annals of the
Cakchiquels, the people now inhabiting the region of Guatemala
where the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs were found, that contains the
clearest statement regarding the division of a tribe into two classes
and the relative positions assigned to each of these, according to
ceremonial usage. The passage relates: " We, the 13 divisions
of warriors, and the seven tribes ... we came to the en
closure of Tulun, and coming, gave our tribute. The seven tribes
were drawn up in order on the left of Tulan. On the right hand,
were arranged the warriors. Firstly, the tribute was taken from
the seven tribes, next from the warriors."2

1 In Qucehua the left hand was named lloque maqui and the right, |>ana maqui.
In the Chinchaysuyo dialed of Quechua the left hand was hichoe inai|ui and the
right, allaucay maqui ( Voeabulario Padre Juan de Figueredo).

- Annals of the Cakchiquels. Library of Aboriginal Literature, vol. vi, 1). (',. Brin
ton, p. 71. It in a striking coincidence which further excavations may however de
stroy, that seven similar upiight slabs were found at Santa Lucia, six complete ones
of which exhibit individuals whose left hands bear special marks. What is more,
these figures are accompanied by animals which agree with a native chronicle quoted
by Dr. Otto Stoll (<>]>. fit. p. 6). According to this some of the totems or marks of
dignity worn by certain Quich^ chieftains were representations of pumas, ocelots and
vultures. It is, perhaps, permissible to advance the hypothesis that the personages
on the slabs are representatives of the seven tribes and display their totemic devices.

000

AMKRKAN CIVILIZATIONS. 165

Buschmann has recorded the interesting fact that, ill Nahuatl,
the right hand is designated as " the good, clever or wise " i= yec-
inaitl or mayectli, also ma imatca or ma-nematca (from yectli —
good and iniati = to be clever or wise). Molina's dictionary fur
nishes us with the following Nahuatl names for the left hand, etc.
Opocli iniiitl \

Opuch inaitl - I j j.. j | Opochiuia — ) v. to do something with
Opuch maye | Opochuia j the left hand.

Topuchcopa, the left, at the left hand,
or side.

In Mexico the totemic lord of the chase was mimed Opochtli.
The much-discussed name Iluitzil-opochtli is considered by some to
signify '' the left-handed humming-bird."

The foregoing proves that in Peru, Guatemala and Mexico a
caste-division was associated with left-handedness and that the
expression "left-handed" was employed as an honorific or dis
tinctive title. It is obvious that before reaching the point when
the left hand would be invested by a distinctive mark, as in the
Santa Lucia bas-reliefs, the above ideas must have been prevalent
for a very long time.

I have already pointed out that a striking similarity of ideas
survives amongst the Zuni Indians of to-day.

As to the native tiger's head (puma or ocelot?) we find that it
is the chief symbol of the central human figure on the great mono
lithic doorway of Tiahuanaco, Peru, a fact which testifies to a
further community of thought.

1 would nd<l a couple of observations which seem to indicate that the language of
the people who sculptured and set up the Santa Lucia slabs was Nahuatl. In the first
case on the long slab, figured by M. Herman Strebel as No. 11, :i chieftain in a recum
bent position is conferring with a personage masked as a deer. The date is sculp
tured on this slab, recalling the Mexican method of figuring numerals and indicates
that a historical event is being recorded.

The Nahuatl word for deer is ma/atl and we know that the Mazahuas, or " (leer-
people " is the name of a native tribe which inhabits to this day the coast region of
Guatemala. A town named Ma/atenango = the capital or mother-city of the Ma/a
lmas lies between the lake of Atitlan and the coast (tenan = mother of somebody;
tenamitl = walled city). A small village named Ma/ahuat also lies farther south and
inland on the Lempa river, in San Salvador. On one of the upright slabs two sculp
tured heads resembling dogs' heads are enclosed in circles. The Nahuatl name for
dog is it/cuintl ; and a town of the same name, corrupted to Escuintla, lies between
the latitude of Amatitlan and the coast of Guatemala, at about the same distance in
land as the town of Maza tenango. As both places were within easy reach from Santa
Lucia, it seems possible that the slabs may refer to some conquest or agreement made
with the " deer and dog people." At all events the agreement is worth noting as a
hint for future research.

G01

100

KKY-NOTK OK ANCIENT

This central figure exhibits two tigers' heads on each shoulder
and six around its head, disposed as rays and interspersed with
what resemble drops of water. The transverse ornament carved
on the breast exhibits four divisions, each of which terminates
with a tiger's head. Four similar heads, looking upwards, are oil
the central decoration beneath the figure and the broad band at the
base terminates in two large tigers' heads. What is more, on
the fragment of a finely carved hollow stone object, which is pre
served at the British Museum and was found at Tiahuauaeo by
Mr. Richard Inwards, there are the finest representations of the
swastika which have as yet been found on the American Conti
nent, and each of its branches terminates in a tiger's head, resem
bling those sculptured on the
monolithic doorway. The frag
ment consists of the half of what
seems to me to have been the top
or handle of a staff or sceptre.
I am indebted to the kindness
of Mr. C. H. Read of the British
Museum, for a rubbing of the
carved fragment and for the per
mission to reproduce it here (fig-
49). The central swastika is angular and its form recalls that of the
Mexican Calendar swastika (fig- -0 . At each side of it are por
tions of what originally were two rounded swastikas, which also ter
minate in tigers' heads. These and the size of the fragment seem to
justify the inference that another square swastika was originally
sculptured on the opposite side, making two rounded and two
square swastikas in all.

It would be diilicnlt to overestimate the importance of this
fragment, for it proves to us that in Tiahuauaco, the swastika
was a sacred symbol. Its association with the puma or ocelot,
links it to the central figure on the monolithic doorway and, possi
bly, connects this with the Mexican identification of the ocelot
with the Ursa Major, with ''the lord who walks around," or the
lord of the underworld, Tezcatlipoca. The two forms of swastika
seem to testify that, in Tiahuanaco also, the idea of the Above
and Below prevailed and that the angular form symbolized the sub
division of the earth and the rounded one that of the heavens.
The rows of personages sculptured on the doorway at each side

FIG. 49.

AMKKH'AN CIVILIZATIONS.

of mid facing the cent nil figure seem to indicate that this com-
meiuor:iles an establishment of tribal organization.

The disl rihntion of the sculptured figures is as follows :

8 figures =2 X 1 ) Ccntra, [«S (igures

« figures — 2X4^6X4 t 8 ligures

<s figures — '2 X 4 ligure. y |j<n,res.

'I'lie (igures on the upper row to the right and left, making six
teen in till, are all alike — so are the sixteen ligures on the second
and the sixteen on the third rows.

Without attempting to describe all the insignia which characterize
the ligures on each of the three rows, I refer the reader to the
magnificent plates contained in Drs. Stiibel and Uhle's monu
mental work on the Knins of Tiahnanaco, and merely note that
each figure in the uppermost row exhibits a bird's head in front of
its head-dress. All figures in the second row are completely
masked as condors. In the third row a tiger's head decorates each
head-dress. It is curious to lind that whilst the birds' and tigers'
heads designate their wearers as heads or chieftains, these emblems
strikingly coincide with the classification of the highest Mexican
warriors into two divisions, known as " the ocelots and the eagles."
II attention is bestowed upon the number of emblems or figures
and their distribution it will be seen, in the first case, that the cen
tral figure exhibits on his person twelve tigers' heads in all, f. e., six
on his head, two on each arm and two on his breast-plate. Six
teen chieftains exhibit the same emblem and the carved fragment
with the swastika appears to have originally exhibited sixteen
tigers' heads, distributed into homogenous groups of four.

It cannot be denied that the forty-eight figures on the doorway
are first divided into two groups of twenty-four by being placed to
the right and left of the central figure. Each division of twenty-
four is grouped as 3X8, which is also 6X4, and yielding a
total of 12 X 4 or 4 X 12 ligures.

Curiously enough the number 12 coincides not only with the num
ber of heads exhibited by the central figure, but the entire bas-
relief offers a certain agreement with the numerical divisions of
Cuzco which I have summarized as having been divided into two
halves and four quarters and subdivided into 12 wards, the names
of which doubtlessly corresponded with tho^e of their inhabitants.
Personally I am inclined to consider that the purpose of the Tia-

8 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

huanaeo bus-relief was to establish a certain tribal organization
and impose certain distinctive insignia upon each tribe. The in
ference that each sculptured figure was differentiated from the other
by being painted in various colors is justified by Molina's account,
already cited, that u in Tiahuanaco the ' Creator ' had his chief
abode, hence the superb edifices in that place, on which edifices
were painted many dresses of Indians . . . thus each nation
uses the dress with which they invest their huaca and they say that
the first that was born [in Tiahuanaco] was there turned into stones,
others say that the first of their lineages were turned into falcons,
condors and other animals and birds."

It is with deference, however, that I submit rny conclusion and
refer the question to the supreme authority of Drs. Stiibel and
Uhle and Mr. Bandelier, whose attainments and exhaustive re
searches in the region of Tiahuanaco qualify them to utter a final
judgment upon this interesting subject. According to Dr. Max
Uhle the civilization established at Tiahuanaco antedates that of
the Incas. It may yet be proven that whilst Tiahuanaco was set
tled in remote times by colonists from the North, the Inca civiliza
tion was due to a later migration. It certainly appears that, in
Tiahuanaco and Cuzco, the identical fundamental scheme of gov
ernment and organization prevailed.

I shall yet have occasion to point out that in Mexico and Yuca
tan and Central America there are also monuments exhibiting mul
tiples of 12 and 4 and also 16 chieftains. Meanwhile it is worth
while to note here briefly, some analogies to Mexican and Maya
antiquities found in Peru.

I am much indebted to Sir Clements I). Markharn, the President
of the Royal Geographical Society, for the kind permission to re
produce here a hasty drawing he made, in 1853, of a gold plaque
(size 5r8() inches) found in Cuzco (fig. 50). It was then in Lima,
being the property of the President of Peru, General Echerrique.
This curious relic exhibits the image of a monstrous face sur
rounded by a band with subdivisions containing various signs. The
plaque was looked upon by its owner as a Calendar, but Sir Clements
Markham, after studying its subdivisions with a view of ascer
taining their agreement with the twelve divisions of the Peruvian
year, preferred to let his notes on the subject remain unpublished,
not having come to a satisfactory conclusion on the subject. I am
permitted, however, to state that Sir Clements Markham specially
G04

AMKUH'AN CIVILIZATIONS.

ir.y

noted the resemblance of a sign, which is represented on the cheeks
of the central (ignre and recurs four times on the encircling band,
to the well-known Maya glyph ahau = chief, lord.

It is, indeed, a cursive representation of a human head and
moreover resembles those figured on the garment of a gigantic red
sandstone statue found at Ak-Kapana and figured in Sti'ibel and
Uhle's Tiahuanaco. On this garment the heads alternate with
squares and form a close design. This resemblance between the
conventional faces on this archaic statue and those on the cold

FIG. 50.

plaque has made me attach more importance to the latter and at
all events regard it as preserving ancient native symbolism. In
connection with these I wish to point out that the plaque itself
offers a certain resemblance to well-known Mexican calendars, the
centre of which usually exhibits a face which is surrounded by a
band with day or month signs. It is remarkable that above each
eye there are four dots, especially as the Quechua word for eye —
naui is homonymous with the Nahuatl numeral four — nahui, and
this is so constantly associated with an eye in the Mexican sign

f>05

1 /() KKY-NOTK OF ANTIF.NT

Nahui ollin — four movements (cf. fig. 2). As strange a coinci
dence as this is furnished by the mark on the forehead of the image,
not because the latter resembles the sect mark of the Vishnu wor
shippers, but because it offers a marked analogy to the Mexican
Acatl sign which is frequently carved or painted as a cane stand
ing in a square receptacle with recurved ends. I am strongly
tempted to interpret this symbol according to the native mode of
thought, as signifying the centre, the union of the Above and Be
low and to regard the upper part of the face itself as a represen
tation of the Above, the heaven, with its two eyes (the Moon and
Sun), whilst the lower part and teeth, as in Mexico, signified the
Below, the earth and underworld. By means of the head on each
cheek and the number four over each eye, the dual and quadruple
rulerships of the empire could well have been expressed. Post
poning a more thorough study of the gold plaque, I merely note
here that it exhibits curious analogies not only to Maya but also
to Mexican symbolism.

Another instance of the same kind is furnished by a possibly
modern but curious small silver pendant of unquestionably native
workmanship. It is preserved at the Ethnographical Museum at
Vienna and is figured in the Report of the International Congress
of Americanists which was held at Berlin in 1888 (pi. i, fig. 1, p.
!)(>). Reputed to be from Cuzco, it represents a figure of the sun
surrounded by eight straight and intermediate undulating rays.
Two serpents are figured beneath the sun ; their bodies extend
across the pendant and their heads with open jaws almost meet in
the centre. A figure, wearing a peculiar head-dress, is kneeling
in worship beneath the symbols, which undoubtedly recall the Mexi
can mode of representing two serpents meeting, as on the Calendar
Stone of Mexico, for instance.

As I am tracing analogies at present, I should like to ask the
reader to compare the symbols figured and designated b}T Salcamay-
hua as that of the earth (see his fig. r, pi. i.xvi) with the sacred
vase from the Maya MS. (his fig. rr, pi. ux) and the form of the
Peruvian symbol for the sea (his fig. e, pi LXVI) with the peculiar
Mexican shell ornament (fig. 1, no. 10). Insufficient though the
above1 analogies may seem in themselves, they are valuable in con
junction with the other data presented and strengthen the conclu
sion that the same symbolism prevailed in Peru as in Central
America, Yucatan and Mexico.
GOO

AMKKK'AN < 'I V 1 U/ ATM )NS. 171

Let us now rapidly journey northwards from Peru to these coun
tries and briefly record the traces of the existence of the same
ideas and quadruplicate form of government which we may en
counter en route. In the elevated plains of Bogota we find positive
proof that, the Muyscas held the same ideas as their southern and
northern neighbors. Their culture hero, Bochica or Ida-cau-zas,
was the personification of the Above and of its symbol, the Sun,
whilst his wife was Cliia, a name suspiciously like Quilla, the Que-
cliua for moon. He was high-priest and ruler but counselled the
Muyscas to elect one of themselves, a chief named Hunc-Ahua, to
be their Za-quc or civil ruler. Ida-can-zas instituted the Calendar
and taught the Muyscas to appoint four chiefs of tribes whose
names or titles are recorded as Gameza, Busbanca, Pesca and
Toca. The institution of a dual government is indicated by the
record that the high-priest dwelt at the sacred town Aura-ca and
the Za-que at Tunjti.

It is extremely curious to notice that Ida-can-zas, in Bogota, did
precisely what Cortes found it expedient to do after the Conquest
of Mexico. The latter assumed the supreme rulership over the
nobility, became the iw lord of Heaven " and instituted a native
chieftain, bearing a female title, as his coadjutor, the lord of the
earth, and the ruler of the people of the lower class.

It may be worth making the passing remark that the title of the
Muysca culture-hero contains the word " can " and thus recalls the
Maya Kukulcan and that the title Za-que offers a certain resem
blance to the Maya title Chac, whilst the name Hunc-ahtia seems
strangely similar to Ilun-aliau which in Maya would signify " one
lord." It is for Muysca scholars to enlighten us as to the deriva
tion and meaning of the above titles and name.

Regretting the lack of time and documents which have pre
vented me from obtaining further data I now return to Guatemala
and the vicinity of the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs. Referring to the
introduction to their Annals1 we learn that the Cakchiquel tribe
was but one of four allied nations, each of which had its capital,
named Tecpan, as follows :

Nations. Capitals.

Cakchiquel Tecpan Quauhtcmallan,

Quiche " Utatlan,

Tzutuhil " Atitlan,

Akahal " Tezolotlan.

1 Kd. IJrinton. Library of Aboriginal literature, p. 13.

172 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

According to Mr. A. P. Maudslay's authoritative statement,
these nations were engaged in warfare against each other at the
time of the Conquest. Te/olotlan was termed the " tierra do
guerra " the land of war, and the precise locality of its tccpan or
former capital has not been traced, although it seems to have been
close to Rabinal or in the valley of that name.

It is well known that, under the rulership of Tizoc, the Mexicans
extended their conquests into Guatemala. Buschmann lias, more
over, proven that the foregoing names of the capitals, of what were
at one time four provinces, are purc-Nalmatl, which fact establishes
the existence of Nahua supremacy in these regions.

It is curious to find that one of the Santa Lucia slabs seems to
commemorate the existence of a central rulership and that of the
four quarters. It is reproduced in Mr. Strebel's publication already
cited and represents a central personage holding a head and a tec-
patl, whilst four lesser personages, each carrying a head, are fig
ured as walking away in four opposed directions. As, according
to native symbolism, the head is the symbol for chieftain this slab
seems to commemorate the establishment and at all events testifies
to the existence in Guatemala of the scheme of government now
so familiar.

In their Annals, the Cakchiquels record, as I have already shown,
that they carried their tribute to " the enclosure of Tulan," a desig
nation which supports my inference, previously maintained, that
Tulan was derived from the Maya tulum, =: a fortification, an
enclosed place or that which is entire, whole, etc., and applied
always to the metropolis of a state.

An ancient Cakchiquel legend relates, moreover, that, according
to the " ancient men," there had been four Tulans : one in the east,
one in the north, one in the west and one " where the god dwells."
This would obviously have been situated towards the south in order
to accord with the general scheme. I cannot but think that this
record testifies to the existence of an extremely ancient state which
starting from one metropolis had gradually developed into four
great Tullans, to one of which the four tecpans of Guatemala
pertained. The fact that the Spaniards found the four nations
living close together, with capitals or tecpans bearing Nahuatl names
and in constant warfare with each other, seems to indicate the de
struction of their own ancient metropolis or Tullan by their Mexi-

AMF.RK'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 173

can conquerors and the consequent disintegration of their former
government.1

The Mendoza Codex teaches us that when the Mexicans con
quered .'i land they first burnt and utterly destroyed the tcocallis
situated in the heart of its central capital. They rased this to
the ground, and carried off to their own metropolis the totemic
images of the rulers of the tribe. The barbarous institution of
human sacrifice, which was only practised to a great extent by the
Mexicans when the necessity to obtain more plentiful food supplies
for their rapidly increasing population forced them to become a
nation of warriors and conquerors, seems indeed to have been
adopted as a fear-inspiring, symbolical rite commemorating the
conquest and destruction of an integral government.

The victim, usualty a chieftain taken prisoner in warfare and
clad with his insignia and the raiment of his people, was stretched
on the stone of sacrifice and, figuratively speaking, represented
his country and its four quarters. The tearing out of his heart by
the high-priest, armed with the tecpatl, the emblem of supreme
authority, signified the destruction of the independent life of his
tribe as much as did the burning of the teocalli, and of its capital.
It would seem as though the horrible custom of annually sacrific
ing one or more representatives of each conquered tribe, had been
adopted as a means of upholding the assumed authority, inspiring
awe and terror and impressing the realization of conquest and utter
subjection. It is known that sometimes a member of a conquered
tribe voluntarily offered himself as a victim in order to release his
people from their obligation, and thus earned for himself immor
tality.

An insight into the native association of ideas is afforded by
Sahagun's note that the lord or chieftain was " the heart of his
Pueblo," which means town as well as population. The death
of the sacrificed chief, therefore, actually conveyed the idea of the
destruction of the tribal government to his vanquished subjects.
It remains to be seen whether the subsequent partition of portions

1 It is to the superior authority of my distinguished ;m<l highly esteemed colleagues
Drs. Otto Stoll and Carl Sapper that I •submit the above considerations. It lay be
possible for the latter enthusiastic, explorer and for Dr. (iustavo Eisen, who is ontin-
uing his valuable researches in (iuatemala, to determine the locality of the ; icient
Tullan, which should, I imagine, be sought for in a region where the land inl ibitcd
by the Four Nations would converge an I at a point almost equidistant from th Four
Tecpans.

P. M. TAPERS I 39 G09

174 KKY-NOTK OF ANCIKNT

of his dead body amongst the priesthood and their ritual canni
balism did not signify the absorption of the conquered population
into the communal life of their victors. The preservation of the
victim's skull on the Tzompantli, as a register of the conquest of
a chieftain, would also be the logical outcome of the native line of
thought and symbolism.

At the risk of making a somewhat lengthy digression I will
again refer here to a point I have already touched upon, namely,
the Mexican employment of the human figure as an allegorical
image of their Empire or State, the idea being that the four limbs
represented its four governmental and territorial divisions and that
these were governed by the head = the lord of the Above or heaven,
and the heart = the lord of the Below or earth. A careful study
of the native Codices has shown me that such was the native alle
gory which indeed can be further traced. The territory of a state
reproduced the organization of the human body with its four limbs,
each of these terminating in minor groups of five.

According to the same set of ideas the cursive image of a state
could be conveyed by a main group of five dots, situated in the
centre of four minor similar groups. Cross-lines expressing the
partition into four quarters would complete such a graphic and cur
sive presentation of the scheme and not only signify its territorial
but also its governmental features. It is noteworthy that, in
Nahuatl as in the Quechua, the title for minor chief is homony-
inous with the word for fingers.

The Nahuatl pilli is a title for a chieftain or lord and also signi
fies child and fingers or toes. A linger is ma-pilli, the prefix ma,
from maitl = hand, designating the fingers as the children of the
hand. The thumb is qualified by the prefix uei = great.

Having gained a recognition of the above facts it is not difficult
to understand the meaning of certain sceptres in the form of an
open hand which occur as symbols of authority borne by chieftains
in the native Codices.1 I know of one important instance, indeed,
where an arm with an open hand is represented as standing upright,
in the centre of a circle divided into sections and zones (similar to
fig. 28, nos. 1, 3, 5, and 6).

The above mentioned examples, which I shall illustrate later,

1 In the Mexican collection at the Troeadero Museum in Paris, there is a curious
wooden sceptre in the form of a hand, winch has been figured by Dr. Ernest Ilniny
in his splendidly illustrated work on this Museum.

010

AMKKH'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 175

have led me to infer that whilst the :irm symbolized one of the four
divisions of the State, the hand symbolized its capital, the thumb
its central ruler and the fingers his four officers or pilli, the rulers
of the four quarters of the minor seat of government. In another
publication I shall produce illustrations showing that the foot was
also employed as an emblem of rule and that Mexico, Yucatan and
Central America furnish us with actual proofs that the hands and
the feet respectively symbolized the upper and lower divisions of
the State.

It is thus curious to compare the name for thumb = uei-ma-pilli
and the name Uei-mac (literally, great hand) which Sahagun gives
as that of the " temporal " coadjutor of the Mexican culture-hero
Quetzalcoatl, as well as the term, our toe == totecxopilli with the
well-known title Totec =our chief or lord. In Yucatan the word
for hand = kab is, as I shall demonstrate further on, actually
incorporated in the title of the lords of the four quarters — Hakab.
I am almost inclined to find a trace of a similar association in the
Quechua word for fingers = pallca and the title palla bestowed
upon noble women.

I have already mentioned in the preceding pages that the natural
basis of the all-pervading native numerical division into 4 X 5 = 20
was the finger and toe count. The following table exhibits the
o'encral custom to designate '20 as one man or one count.1

vT? !""»

Word for Man. Word for 20.

Nahuatl. tlacatl. cem-poualli = one count.

Quiche ^

and >- uinay = one man.

Cakchiquel )

Tzendal. hun-uinic = one man,
Maya.

In the latter case the aflix kal seems to be derived from the same
source as the verb kal =: to close up or fasten something, and to
signify something complete or finished. At the same time the Maya
uinal is the Maya name for the twenty calendar-signs, and the
same association is demonstrated as existing in Mexico by the well-
known picture in the Vatican Codex r (p. 75), which represents a
man surrounded by the twenty Mexican calendar-signs.

As I shall treat of the same subject more fully in another pub-

1 See Hrinton. The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico, p. 4!>.

(Ill

17f) KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

lication, I slia.ll but. briefly touch upon the intimate connection there
existed between these calendar-signs and the twenty classes into
which the population was strictly divided. It is known that an
individual received the name of the day on which he was born and
it is possible to prove that this determined his position in the com
monwealth, his class and his future occupation. Each child was
formally registered by the priestly statisticians at birth, and at
about the age of six, when his name was sometimes changed, he
entered one of the two educational establishments where he was
brought up by the State, under the absolute control of the priest
hood and rulers. It can be gleaned that one of the chief cares
of the latter was to maintain the same average number of indi
viduals in the distinct classes, to which the various forms of labor
were allotted and who became in time identified with these. In
order to keep the machinery of state in perfect adjustment, indi
viduals had sometimes to be transferred from the class into which
they were born, to another. In some cases this seems to have been
arbitrarily ordered by the authorities, but the latter appear to have
guided themselves by the position of the parents and to have estab
lished the custom that an individual might alternatively be trans
ferred into the paternal or maternal class, but not into any other.
As each class was, moreover, divided into an upper and lower one,
it wras possible for each person to elevate himself from the lower
to the higher by individual merit or to incur abasement, for un
worthy conduct, and being, as we have already seen, "reduced
to the official rank of women."

The direct outcome of such a form of organization was stringent
laws governing marriage, it being expedient that certain classes
only should intermarry, not only to avoid complications but also to
ensure a certain degree of cooperation conducive to the prosperity
of the State. In the tribal laws still existing amongst the native
tribes of North America, I see the logical survivals of an ancient
scheme of organization.

After gaining the above recognition of some of the actual duties
of the priest-rulers of ancient Mexico, it is possible to understand
the meaning of the native sentence, noted by Sahagun, that the
native games of patolli and tlachtli constituted a practice in "the
art of government/' From this it is clear that the former, played
by two individuals with dice and markers upon a mat in the shape
of a cross, and symbolical of the Four Quarters, was originally
612

177

invented by the priest-rulers for tin eminently practical purpose.
The mat being an image of the quadruple state and its subdivis
ions, it was possible to make it serve as a register-board exhibit
ing the distribution of the population, the number of individuals
in each class and its death and birth rates. We are informed that
when parents, according to the inflexible law, carried their new
born child to the priest, he consulted his books full of day-signs
and foretold what its future was to be.

A proof that it was the positions of the stars which determined
the season and furnished the means of fixing a date, is furnished
by the fact that the stars were also •' consulted " and believed to
exert an influence upon the destiny of the child.

The implicit faith in the predictions of the priests and in the
absolute influence of the position of the heavenly bodies and the
date of its birth upon the individual indicates that the parents were
kept in ignorance as to the workings of the machinery of state and
that the priesthood were reverenced for their power of prophecy.
The belief that they could personally exercise a favorable influence
over the destiny of the child seems also to have been encouraged
in the parents, since an offering of gifts at the period of registra
tion was customary. After the Conquest, when the native govern
ment had been completely broken up, and the enforced registra
tion of birth and the prediction of the priest had utterly lost their
original significance, native parents still consulted the surviving
members of the priest-rulers ; and these ancient statisticians, in
order to gain a livelihood, continued to consult their books and
uttered predictions as of yore, although their power to control their
fulfilment had vanished forever. Ancient Mexico thus furnishes
us with an interesting and instructive explanation of the origin of
divinatory practices, prognostication at birth, etc. It shows us
that, under the ancient form of established government, the sign
of the date of a child's birth actually did control his future destiny,
while it was unquestionably in the power of the priesthood, not
only to predict his future, but also to exert a favorable or unfav
orable influence upon it.

The above facts help us to understand the origin not only of
divination, propitiation and the belief in the influence of day-signs,
but also of the native games which became popular after the Con
quest, when their original use and meaning had become obsolete.

Deferring further discussion of this interesting matter I will but

178 KhY-XOTE <>F ANCIENT

draw attention to Mr. Stewart Culin's important study of " Amer
ican Indian Games,"1 which clearly establishes their " interrela-
tion " and at the same time proves that they were based, as first
distinctly insisted upon by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, on the central
idea and that of the four quarters of the world. Mr. Culin has
gone so far as to fix the place of origin of the " platter or dice
class of games which he has found recorded as existing among
some Gl American tribes, in the arid region of the southwestern
United States and Northern or Central Mexico," and to conceive
that " in ancient Mexico we find traces of its highest development."

I place the utmost value upon Mr. Culin's painstaking and con
scientious researches and regard them as strongly corroborating
my views exposed in the preceding pages. His identification of
the pictured diagram in the Fejervary Codex, as the counting cir
cuit of the Tour Quarters, with a presiding god in the middle, as
in Zuiii, does credit to his perspicacity- I agree with him in con
sidering that this chart could have been employed after the Con
quest for a game or for divination, but trust that, upon perusal of
this paper, he will admit that primarily the Fejervary diagram ex
pressed the native scheme of government and the calendar, which
was no other than a means of ruling the classes by binding each of
these to a special day and totemic sign. Each of the twenty
classes or clans had its day, known by a particular sign which was
also its totemic mark. As the day-signs recurred periodically, the
chief or head of each clan became its living representative, as
sumed a totemistic costume and became the " living image of the
ancestral teotl," or god of his people, of whose activity he rendered
account to the central government. It is significant that the com
mon native title for lords or chieftains was "tlatoque," literally,
" the speakers," and that they were closely designated as the spokes
men of his people, who habitually kept silence in his presence.

The fact that the names and signs of the days are identical with
the totemic tribal distinctions imposed for governmental reasons,
is one which I shall proceed to demonstrate more fully. Mean
while attention is now drawn to the chapter on the 7-day period
in Dr. Daniel G. Brinton's 4k Native Calendar of Central America
and Mexico," in which he surmises that the tribal divisions of the
Cakchiquels " were drawn from the numbers of the Calendar."

1 Bulletin of the Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania, no. .'5,
vol. I.

A.MKKK AN CIVILIZATIONS. 179

According to the native records the institution of the Calendar was
simultaneous with that of tribal organization and a minute study
of both features reveals that it could not have been otherwise.

From the dawn of their history the Cakchiquels, as I have al
ready shown, were divided into thirteen divisions of warriors
(Khob, constituting the upper class) and seven tribes (Amag,
constituting the lower class). A totem and a day being assigned
to each division and tribe, they were, once and for all time, placed
in a definite position towards each other and towards the state, and
the order in which their chieftains were to sit in general council, and
to assume or perform certain duties, was thus instituted. The
20-day period thus constituted a "complete count" and synopsis
of the " thirteen divisions of warriors and seven tribes," but it
also fulfilled other not less important purposes.

The day-signs were so ordered that the first, eleventh and six
teenth were major signs employed to designate the years, and
identified with the four quarters, elements and their respective
colors. The 20-day period, consisting as it also did of 4 major
signs and of 4 X 4 — 16 minor signs, was as closely linked to the
idea of the Four Quarters as it was to the Above and Below, rep
resented by the 13 -{-7 division. It is therefore evident that a
simultaneous reckoning of periods consisting of 5, 7, 13, and 20
days was ingeniously combined. I shall show in my special trea
tise how '• the lords of the Night" employed in their astronomical
calendar, 9-night and 9-moon periods for purposes of their own
and how these also served to carry out certain ideas of organiza
tion, controlling persons. Although it embodied the results of
long-standing primitive astronomical observation and accorded
with the seasons and movements of the celestial bodies, the native
Calendar was primarily a governmental institution, designed to
control the actions of human beings and bring their communal life
in accord with the periodical movements of the heavenly bodies.

In my Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar System, commu
nicated to the International Congress of Americanists at Stock
holm, in 1894, I stated certain historical and astronomical facts
which showed that the New Cycle, which began in 1507 with the
year Acatl, had commenced on March 14th three days after the
vernal equinox and that this delay had obviously been intentional,
in order to wait for the new moon, which fell on March 13th at
1 1.40 A. M., and the planet Venus, -'which was possibly visible both

180 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

as morning and evening star between March 14th and 18th." The
above facts, which have remained unchallenged since their publica
tion, afford an insight into the astronomical attainments of the
sun-priests and moon and star-priests and show an evident desire
to begin a new era at a favorable time, when there was a conjunc
tion of the heavenly bodies. Thus the terms of ollice of the lords
of the Above and Below were entered upon and the machinery of
state set into motion, in unison with striking celestial phenomena.
It is impossible not to realize how great must be the antiquity of
a system which, evolving from the .rudimentary, ceremonial divi
sion of a tribe into seven parts, as a consequence of its primitive
observation of the Septentrioues, developed into a great and com
plex government dominated and pervaded by the abstract concep
tions of the seven-fold divisions of the Above, Below, Middle and
Four Quarters.

Deferring further comment I will proceed to demonstrate the
practical value, for governmental purposes, of the classification of
a community into twenty divisions with as many representative
heads, their localizations at given points of the compass, and asso
ciation with a calendar-sign and day, and will only refer to what I
have already published in my Note on the Calendar, namely, how,
by means of the combination of 13 numerals with the 20 signs, a
unit of 260 days was obtained, and how each sign was combined
but once with the same number, and a perfect system of rotation
of periods, regulating office, labor, etc., was instituted. It is not
possible for me to enlarge here upon the features and merits of the
system which I do not hesitate to term one of the most admirable
and perfect achievements of the human intellect. My present
purpose is to lay stress upon the fact that, in Mexico, the major
calendar-signs were borne as titles by the rulers of the four quar
ters who presided in rotation over a year — the name of this and
of their title being always in correspondence.

Nezahualcoyotl, the lord of Tezcoco, is recorded as possessing
the title Ome Tochtli = 2 Rabbit, and would obviously have pre
sided over the calendar periods of that name. This inference is
undoubtedly corroborated by Nunez de la Vega's following state
ment, quoted by Boturini:1

" Instead of the Mexican signs Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli and Toch
tli, the Tzeudals, inhabiting Chiapas, employed in their Calendar

1 Idea de una nucva historic general, Madrid, 17-16, \>. 117.
GIG

AMKKICAX CIVILIZATIONS. 181

the names of four of their chieftains : Votan, Lambat, Been and
Chiiuix. . . . They also figured a man named Coslahuntax, as
seated in a chair. . ." Boturini remarks that this person should
more correctly be named Imos or Max and was " the head of
the 20 lords who were the symbols of the 20 days of the Calendar.
Being the principal and initial sign, Coslahuntax represented in
himself the period of thirteen days." As Dr. Brintoii rightly notes1
the name of the personage should be Oxlaghuu tax, literally signi
fying u the thirteen divisions or parts."

We thus see that, whilst the names of the chiefs of the four
quarters constituted the four major calendar-signs, one supreme
lord embodied the attributes or "powers" of the 13 divisions of
warriors and principal division. Thus the 13 divisions seem to
have been regarded as 12 plus an all-embracing 1.

Nunez de la Vega continues : "In the representations of their
calendar they painted seven black persons, corresponding to the
seven days of their reckoning." Boturini adds : these seven black
men were no other than the principal priest-rulers of this nation.
" They held in great veneration the l lord of the black
men,' who was entitled Yal-ahua." Boturini comments on this
utterance and explains that the latter was no other than the high-
priest.

I point out the evident identity of Yal-ahua to the Mexican
Yoal-tecuhtli = the lord of the Night, one of the titles given to
Polaris and to his earthly representative, the high priest of the
Earth and nocturnal cult. As already explained this personage
bore in Mexico the female title, Cihuacoatl = Woman-serpent ;
but we also find this name for the earth-mother alternating with
Chi come -coatlzz: literally, seven serpents. In Beltran de la Rosa's
" Arte Maya" we find the word u Ahaucchapat," translated as
14 Serpent with seven heads" and are thus led to infer that the
Mexicans and Mayas had conceived the image of a "serpent with
seven heads " as an allegory of the seven tribal divisions united in
one body and bestowed this title to the representative of the Karth-
cult, the high priest of the Below. It follows that, just as the
number 13 resolves itself into 12 4- 1, so the mystic number 7
proves to have been considered as G -f- 1 > precisely what might
be expected as the natural sequence of the derivation of the num
ber from a circumpolar constellation, consisting of seven stars,

1 Native Calendar, p. 50.

017

182 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

one of which was Polaris. Nunez de la Vega and Boturini's tes
timony teaches us that the Tzendals were organized into twenty
divisions and that thirteen of these were embodied in one chief,
while the seven others, associated with black, were personified by
the high priest. The in formation that one individual was thus
believed to unite in his person the attributes of several classes
and that the lords of the four quarters and each of the twenty
divisions bore names which were also calendar-signs, gain in value
when it is realized that, in the opinion of Drs. Schellhas and Brin-
ton, the invention of the native Calendar system may probably be
assigned to the ancient inhabitants of Chiapas, where the Tzendals
now dwell.1 In treating of the ruins of Palenque situated in this
region, I shall again refer to the Tzendals.

Meanwhile, let us examine the Cakchiquel tradition about Cu
cumatz, the sorcerer chief of the Quiches, since it also treats of
the 7-day period. We are told that he " ascended to heaven for
seven days and descended into the under world for seven days and
then assumed, in rotation, four different animal forms during as
many periods of seven days.

It is impossible not to recognize from this that, like the Zunis of
to-day, the Quiches " symbolized the terrestrial sphere by referring
to the four cardinal points, to the zenith and nadir, the individual
himself making the seventh number," and tluit Cucumatz, who
was evidently the high priest and head of the seven tribes, assumed
the totemistic attributes of each of these, in rotation, for periods
of seven days each. In this case we have an interesting and sug
gestive variant of the scheme and it suggests the possibility that,
possibly actuated by ambition, Cucumatz had grasped and united
in his person the prerogatives of the chiefs or heads of each tribe.
On the other hand, it may be that it was the original custom for
the high priest to be a sort of animated calendar sign in unison
with the separate chiefs of each tribe, who represented, in rota
tion, the totemistic ancestors of their people.

Having shown how the lords of the Four Quarters were indisso-
lubly linked to the four major calendar-signs which also symbol
ized the elements, let us examine the data establishing that the
capital of each of the four provinces was named a tecpan. From
Duran I have already quoted that in the Mexican metropolis there

1 Vergleichende Stndien. Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographic, lid. ill, 1890,
and the Native Calendar, p. 19.

618

183

were two tecpans or official houses in which the affairs of the gov
ernment were attended to and councils held. It is significant that
one of these was named " the tecpan of men" and the other " the
tecp;ui of women." Whilst the metropolis, the seat of the dual
government, thus had its two tecpans whicli were presided over
by the two supreme rulers, we have learned from other sources of
the four tecpans in Guatemala and that Texcoco, near the city of
Mexico, was also termed a tecpan and that its ruler bore as a title
one of the four major calendar-signs. These facts explain his
position and the reason why the "lord of Texcoco" wras one of four
lords who supported Montezuma when he met Cortes in full state.
A careful investigation of the derivation and true significance of
the word tecpan yields interesting results. Cen-tecpan-tli means,
a count of twenty persons ; the verb tecpana signifies, " to estab
lish something in concerted order; to establish order amongst
people." The verb tecpancapoa means, to count something in
regular order.

The Maya verb tepal z= to govern or reign, or to be " one who
mediates," appears to be allied to the above Nahuatl words and it
is not unlikely that the employment of the flint-knife or tecpatl
as an emblem of office had been suggested by the fact that its
Nahuatl name resembles, in sound, the above words formed with
tecpan, and also the Maya verb tepal. It thus constituted a bi
lingual rebus, expressing the sense =: to govern, to rule, to regu
late, etc., and, employed as the symbol of the North and Polaris,
it conveyed the idea that the latter was not only the producer of
life but the regulator of the Universe.

From the fact that a tecpan constituted a minor integral whole
and comprised the rule over twenty classes of people, we see that
whilst the four provincial tecpans were in themselves miniature
reproductions of the metropolis, they but filled the same position
in relation to this as the four limbs to the body of a man or quad
ruped. A final proof of how completely this analogy was rec
ognized by the native rulers is furnished by the Maya titles which
embody the word kab = arm and hand.

It has already been mentioned in the preceding pages that the
rulers of the four quarters were entitled Ba-cab and that in the
Dresden Codex an image of the four quarters was figured by four
bones. The word for bone being bac and for arm being kab. it is
obvious that the arm-bone or humerus would furnish a rebus, ex-

G19

184 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

pressing the title of the four Bacabs — a conclusion which throws
light upon the signification of the cross-bones of native pictography
and also of the incised and decorated human arm and leg bones
which have been found in Mexico and Yucatan.

At the same time the word kab also recurs in the title Ah-Cuch-
Cab which signifies " the ruler or chief of a town or place," Cuchil
being the name of the latter. Both of these words so closely re
semble cuxabal and cuxtal, the word for '• life," that it is not im
possible that the native mind often associated the town as a centre
of life, and thought of their chief 'as one whose symbol was a
"life-dispensing hand." In order to grasp the full significance of
the symbol of the hand in Maya sculptured and written records it
is necessary to bear these facts in mind.

In 1895 Mr. Teobert Maler unearthed in the centre of the public
square at " Kl Seibal," Guatemala, a sculptured stela exhibiting
the figures of a chieftain over whose head an open hand was
carved. It is impossible not to interpret this as a mark that the
chieftain had once been the ruler of a town and that this, in turn,
was one of four minor capitals belonging to a central metropolis.
A hand, enclosed in quadrangular lines and represented on the
garment of a chieftain, was found by Dr. LePlongeon at Uxmal,
and I believe that this should be interpreted in the same manner.

In my essay on Ancient Mexican Shields (Internationales Archiv
fiir Ethnographic, band v, 18D2) I reproduced two interesting in
stances of the employment, as the name-sign of a ruler in native
pictography, of a hand on the palm of which an eye is depicted.
The efligy of a hand, the sacred Kab-ul, which was kept in a place
in Yucatan to which people from all quarters resorted regularly
in great numbers, resolves itself into the symbol of an ancient
capital to which great high-roads led from the cardinal points. Hut
important as this capital may have been, its connection with the
hand-symbol proves that it was originally one of four minor centres
and formed but a part of a greater whole. It would correspond
to the image, in one of the native Codices, of a subdivided circle
with an arm and hand standing in its middle, and its Bacab would
undoubtedly have carried a sceptre in the shape of an open hand,
such as depicted in the Codices as a staff of of lice.

While we thus find the human figure distinctly associated with
the lords of the four quarters of the Above we find the four lords
of the Below, entitled Chac, symbolized by the quadruped figure

G20

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 185

of the native jaguar = clincoli, associated with the color red —
chnc and with rain, storms, thunder and lightning, all of which
phenomena were, singly and collectively, termed Chnc.

If ever there has been an instance where language or the re
semblance in sound of certain words has caused certain symbols
to amalgamate with a name or title, it is surely this, and light is
thereby thrown upon the development of symbolism and associa
tions of thought amongst primitive people.

The Chacs of Yucatan were identical with the Tlalocs, the octli
or rain lords of Mexico, whose function, as votaries of earth-cult,
was the regulation of agriculture, irrigation and the collection and
distribution of all products of the soil. It is interesting to trace
that, in other regions of Yucatan, presumably where no chacohs
or jaguars existed, the minor rulers of provinces seem to have been
termed ocelots = Balam. a title found associated with Maya ruler-
ship.

With the foregoing data in mind it is easy to grasp the meaning
of the talon of a beast of prey, employed ns an emblem of rank
or office in the native Codices or bas-reliefs and to perceive that
this was the symbol of a Cliac or Balam, one of the four lords of
the earth or Below, just as the hand was that of the lords of the
Above. The complete image of the dual State is thus shown to have
consisted at one time of an ideal group consisting of a man with a
benst of prey, a jaguar or ocelot. In Mexico we have the man-
bird and the man-ocelot respectively representing the rulers of the
two great divisions of the State.

At Chichen-Itza and elsewhere in Yucatan sculptured figures of
ocelots supporting circular vessels have been found and there are
interesting instances of the combination of the human figure with
ocelot = Balam attributes. One monolithic figure, discovered at
Chichen-Itza by Mr. A. P. Maudslay, and belonging to the cat
egory of the recumbent statues bearing circular vase-like recepta
cles, already described, exhibits a human head and form, whilst the
body is covered with a spotted skin. In the sculptured image of
Mictlan-tecuhtli (fig. 19) a human head is accompanied by limbs
of equal length terminating in wild beasts' talons. The positions
of the limbs are better understood when compared with the follow
ing illustration, to which I shall revert (fig. f>l). Meanwhile, I
shall merely remark that in both of these curious bas-reliefs we
seem to have images of the quadruple terrestrial and celestial

G21

180

KKY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

Fig. 51, which is a corrected drawing of one of
those contained in Leon y Gama's "Descripcion de las dos Piedras,"
furnishes an interesting example, in accord with the image of
Mictlantecuhtli, of the employment of the group of five as a sym
bol of the centre and four quarters, and exhibits four limbs asso
ciated witli four heads (the quarters and their chiefs), while the
hands hold two other heads, symbolical of the dual rulers of the
State.

Two facts which throw an interesting light upon the growth of
native symbolism are worth mentioning here. As a symbol on the
head of Mictlan-tecuhtli, the lord of the North, two representa
tions of a centipede are distinguishable. In Nahuatl the name

of this is u ccntzonmayc," literally,
four hundred hands. It can thus be
seen that the idea of one body with
a multitude of hands had occurred to
the native philosophers as a suitable
allegory for their conception of a cen
tral celestial nnd terrestrial rule which
guided the activity of innumerable ap
pointed hands and dispensed, through
these, not only life and favors but also
death or chastisement.
KlG- 51- Before proceeding further we must

consider tree-symbolism in ancient America. According to Molina
the Inca Yupanqui (surnamed the left-handed) ordered the temple
of Quisuar-cancha to be made : quisuar = a tree, the Ruddleia
/m-mm, cancha = place of. Salcamayhua (op. cit., p. 77), who
attributes the building of this temple to Manco Capac, states
that these two trees, which were in the temple, "typified his father
and mother . . . and he ordered that they should be adorned
with roots of gold and silver and with golden fruit. Hence they
were called Ccurichachac Collquechachac Tampu Yracan, which
means that the two trees typified his parents, that the Incas pro
ceeded from them like fruit from the trees, and that the two trees
were as the roots and stems of the Incas. All these things were
executed to record their greatness." This passage is of utmost
value, for it conveys to us not only that the Incas kept a record of
their male and female ancestry and respectively associated the male

AMEKICAN CIVILIZATION:

187

and female elements with gold and silver, but also establishes Hie
important point that the tree was employed as an emblem of the
life and growth of a lineage or race.

This fact is particularly interesting if collated with the Mexi
can tree-symbols. In the Fejervary diagram (fig. 52), we find a
different kind of tree and two totemic figures assigned to each
quarter, which indicates that the inhabitants of each of the four
provinces were regarded as of a distinct race. The top of each
tree spreads itself into two branches and, with one exception, each

FIG. 52. Copy of p. 44, Fejervary Codex.

of these bears three blossoms or leaves denoting, it would seem,
the division of a tribe into 2X3 = 6 parts.

The majority of tree-symbols, however, exhibit a quadruplicate
division as in fig. 53, nos. 1, 4 and 7. At the same time it is im
possible not to recognize that each example renders in a graphic
manner the organization of a tribe. In DOS. 2 and 8, for instance,
we find that each of the four branches was again subdivided,
yielding eight subdivisions instead of four. In no. 3, we have
quadruple branches, a pair of recurved spikes with buds and a

023

188

KEY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

central bud, the idea of duality repeating itself in the trunk of the
tree, one-half of which above ground is white, whilst the other
below ground is dark. The obvious allusion is to the Above and
Below and this idea is further symbolized by the head of the
coatl — serpent or twin. In this figure there is a hint of the ex
istence of an idea I have found expressed in other cases, namely,
that a mystic line of demarcation existed at the base of a tree,
which separated its upward from its downward growth. This was
the seat of the life of the tree, which sent its trunk and crown
heavenwards and its roots and rootlets earthwards. The fact that
the juice of the agave or maguey was collected from the core of

FIG. 5:?.

the plant seems to be at the bottom of its adoption as the sacred
and ceremonial " drink of life," which was, subsequently, care
fully prepared and fermented. The idea that a tree enclosed male
and female elements seems to have been also a strong one and
would, in course of time, doubtlessly have led to the conception
of superhuman beings in human form, dwelling in trees. What is
more, the adoption by each tribe of a particular sort of tree, a
custom amply proven, would naturally lead to a species of tree-
cult or veneration which, amongst the uninitiated, might lead to a
form of worship of the tree itself.
024

AMKKIC'AX CIVIIJ/ATIONS.

189

The ceremonial presentation of single leaves of the same kinds
as those represented on the trees, as in fig. 53, no. G, proves that
underlying these picture-writings there is far more meaning than
has heretofore been suspected or recognized. It is not possible
for me to present here all the material I have collected on this sub
ject which will be set forth in a future monograph. I will, how
ever, direct attention to the peculiar treatment in fig. 53, no. 1, of
the tree trunk which is enlarged and forms a quadriform figure.
In no. 4, the trunk enlarges to the shape of a head; in no. 2 the
tree grows from a human head and two young shoots issue from
each side of the trunk, seemingly indicating a fresh growth in
tribal life. .In no. 5, we have an example of a human figure lying
at the base of a tree and a fifth leaf growing in the centre of the
trectop. Directing attention to the evident care taken in repre
senting an equal number of branches pointing upwards and down
wards I would cite here an extremely interesting representation of
a tree in the Horgian Codex. In this case the trunk issues from
a conventionally drawn heart, figured in the centre of the symbol
for sky or heaven. As the Nahuatl for heart is yul-lotl, from the
verb yuli = to live, to resuscitate, the idea is distinctly conveyed
that the tree was that of life = yuli and proceeded from the celes
tial centre of life, Polaris or the Heart of Heaven, a native title
for the Supreme Being.1

In the Telleriano-Remensis MS., a "tree of Paradise," so
termed in the text, is figured, and there are, in other Codices,
various examples of trees encircled with serpents, where it is ob
vious that this combination was made in order to express, phonet
ically, that a celestial tree was intended, the word kan = serpent,
being made to express kaan = heaven. A celestial tree, situated
at the pole and bearing in some cases seven and in others five
blossoms, was frequently depicted and its symbolism is obvious. In
my commentary on the Ilispano-Mexican AIS. "• The Lyfe of the
Indians," the " Gods," "Five Flowers," and u Seven Flowers," will
be treated in detail.

From Sahagun and Olinos we learn that the Mexicans employed
the image of a tree, metaphorically, to signify a lord, governor,
progenitor, first ancestor. Relations are designated as tl issuing
from one trunk." A branch is literally termed " the arm of the

1 Sec Molinn.'fl (lictionfivy for further mc.'inings of verb yuli, whic.li accounts for ;in
other form of primitive native symbolism.

P. M. PAI'KKS I 40 (I2f>

190 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

tree," kab-che. Two kinds of trees, the Puclmtl and Aueuetl, sig
nified, metaphorically, " a father, mother, lord, captain or gov
ernor who were, or are, like shade-giving, sheltering trees" (Olmos) .
The above metaphors explain the frequent association of a head,
the symbol of n chief or lord, with the tree symbols. It is note
worthy that in Nahuatl, the name for head = quaitl, is singularly
like quauitl = tree, and also recalls the word for serpent = coatl,
facts which may have somewhat guided the choice and associa
tion of these symbols. The native metaphors recorded by Olmos,
moquauhtia = an honored person or lord who has vassals or de
pendents, and atlapalli — literally, leaf — a person of the lower
class, a worker, initiate us still further into the meaning of the
native symbolism and prove the antiquity of this, since the desig
nation of a chief as a tree and a vassal as a leaf was in current
use. The presentation of the tree issuing from a heart = ynl-lotl
is moreover, in perfect keeping with native thought, since the
chieftain or lord was entitled " the heart, or life of the town or
population."

The meaning of the bird, which is represented as perched on
each of the four trees in the Fejervary diagram, is likewise ex
plained by the metaphors recorded by Olmos who states that, " a
son or child or a much beloved lord or chieftain was compared to
a beautiful and precious bird, such as the Quetzal, the Roseate
Spoonbill, the Blue-bird, etc., etc." Surmounting the tribal trees
in the diagram, the birds therefore typify the lords of the four
provinces and this is corroborated by the fact that each different
bird is figured again in the corner-loops in combination with the
symbols of the cardinal points. The association of the symbols
for lord or chief — the head, and the precious bird with the tribal
tree also explains the frequent representation, in the native Codi
ces, of one or two serpents entwined around the tree, since the
serpent was the symbol in Mexico of the dual rulers or high-priests
of the Above and Below. There is ample proof, which shall be
presented in full in my monograph on this subject, that the above
metaphorical imnges were as intelligible to the Mayas and other
tribes, as to the Mexicans themselves, for the identical metaphors
and imagery were in widespread general use. The following data
will corroborate this statement.

A Maya native drawing, copied by Cogolludo in 1040 from the
MS. of the Chilan Balam or Sacred Book of Man, which relates the
G26

AAIKRICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 191

history of the Mayas, has been recently reproduced in Dr. Daniel
G. Brinton's Primer of Maya Hieroglyphics, p. 47. It displays a
rectangular stone slab like a table, on the centre of which rests
a circular bowl, the symbol, MS I have shown, of the earth and
centre. Growing from this is a spreading tree,

It is a curious and undeniable fact that the Maya name for table
is mayac, and that the dictionaries contain the words mayac-
tun, stone-table, and mayac-che, wooden, literally, tree-table.
Familiarity with the native modes of rebus-writing leads to the
inference that this picture of a tree and table, expressing the
sounds mayac-che, actually signified the tree of the Mayas and
therefore figured in the book relating their history. Bishop Landa
records that the Mayas believed in a beautiful celestial tree, resem
bling the ceiba and named yax-che, literally, green tree, under
whose shade they would repose in after-life. Abbe Brasseur de
Bourbourg surmises that this tree was the same as the beautiful
shade tree which grows in Yucatan and Mexico and is named, in
the latter country, tonacaz-quahuital =z tree of our subsistence,
/. e., life.

A Maya name for the "tree of life," ua-hom-che, next claims
our attention.1 A valuable old manuscript dictionary of the Maya
language, quoted by Dr. Brinton, records that the word uah means
" a certain kind of life." The word horn is an ancient term for
an artificial elevation, mound or pyramid, hence homnl, the pyra
mid on which a temple was built. Combined with che, tree, the
word seems to signify "the elevated or high tree of life," the
idea of the celestial tree "on high," being possibly intended. In
connection with this it is interesting to reexamine fig. 20, iv, which
represents a flat pyramid from which grows a four-petalled flower
on a stalk with two leaves, the symbolism of which is apparent.

I am inclined to connect another native name translated in the
dictionaries by " cross " = zin-che with zihil = to be born, to com
mence, zihnal = original, primitive, and zinn = origin, generation,
ancestry, and to interpret it " the tree of ancestral or tribal life."
On the other hand, there is the adjective z i nil z= mighty, great,
and the meaning of zin-che may merely mean " the mighty tree."
In treating of the "cross tablet" of Palenque in the following

1 Sec I). (I. IJrinton 'American Hero-myths, p. lf>5) who, like other authorities, has
not reco^ni/.ed the (inference between native cross-symbols, denoting the four quar
ters celestial and terrestrial ami the tree of tribal life.

072

192 KKY-NOTI-: OF AN OIK NT

pages, reference will be made to Dr. Brinton's identification of
the "cross" as a tree and tree symbolism referred to again.
Although unable to produce here all the data I have collected on
the subject, I think that the foregoing prove that the Peruvians,
Mexicans and Mayas, employed the four-branched tree as an image
of the organization and growth of their communal life, and utilized
it in pictography as a means of recording changes of organization
and statistics of increase or decrease of population. The Maya
word for "one generation of men," uinay, literally meaning "one
growth," seems to reveal that ea,ch generation was popularly
thought of as one growth of leaves on the tree of state — a simile
which is worthy of note.

One more point remains to be considered in reference to the or
ganization of the population into four parts, each of which con
sisted of four minor parts and so on ; namely, the employment of
color as a means of differentiation.

In Peru each person wore on the head a twisted cord, of the color
of its quarter, whilst the Inca alone wore these colors combined,
in the band which encircled his brow, as a sign that in his person
he united the rulership over the four provinces. Molina records
the colors of these as red, yellow, white and black. In the titles
of the Maya Bacabs, or lords of the provinces, as given by Landa,
the words for yellow, red, white and black, are found to be incor
porated and prove to be identical with the .arrangement in Peru.
In Mexico, on the other hand, we find red, yellow, green and blue
as the colors of the Four Quarters, white and black being assigned to
the Above and Below. All colors combined are to be found united
in symbols of the Centre and it is known that the use of centzon-
tilmatli and quachtli = mantles of four hundred colors = multi
colored were supplied as tributes to the capital, for the use of a
privileged caste. A somewhat similar arrangement to the Mexican
is that of the Zufiis at the present time. According to Mr. dish
ing, they assign yellow, blue, red and white to the cardinal points,
speckled and black to the Above — zenith and Below = nadir,
and " all colours to the Middle or Centre."

In Peru, Mexico and Yucatan I have found scattered notices
proving that individuals habitually painted their bodies with their
respective colors. The Mexican "lords of the night " smeared
themselves with black. A passage in Sahagun (book r, chap, v)
speaks of the whitening of the " face, arms, hands and legs with
C28

AMKKK AN CIVILIZATIONS. 193

Hiratl' " =. chalk, as though this were u habit of the k' noblewomen. "
In the Codices some women are, in fact, represented with white
faces, whilst those of the majority are painted yellow and it is
known that yellow ochre was employed in reality. I have, in
preparation, a brief, illustrated monograph showing the various
modes of painting the face represented in the native pictorial rec
ords. In these, men painted red are of frequent occurrence, and
it is known that the " red man " owed his appellation to the cus
tom of using red pigment on his body.

Let ns now briefly consider some of the results which inevitably
followed the establishment of two diverging cults which were the
outcome of the primitive recognition of duality and the artificial
association of sex with Heaven and Earth, Day and Night, etc.
On pp. 60-62 I have cited evidence showing that at one time in
the past history of the Aztecs, serious differences arose between the
male and female rulers, and led to a separation of the tribe and the
establishment of two distinct centres of government.

The native languages furnish strong indications that, in ordinary
tribal life, the separation of the sexes must have been generally
enforced from remote antiquity and that male and female commu
nities existed in various portions of the continent. It is well known
that, to this day, the Xahuatl tongue spoken by the men is differ
ent from that spoken by the women, and that the same duality of
language prevails among other American tribes. When the male
and female portions of the native states separated and founded
separate capitals it is obvious that each would have still further
cultivated a separate language and that the institution of two dis
tinct cults would have accentuated their differences and given a
fresh impetus to their development. As will be shown, the Maya
chronicles reveal that, in Yucatan, the nocturnal cult of the female
principle degenerated into such abominations that the incensed
population actually rose in revolt, murdered the high-priests and
scattered their votaries.

It was obviously owing to a recognition of the degradation at
tendant upon the abuse of intoxicating drinks, which had played
such a role in the cult of the earth-mother, that such stern laws
were enforced in Mexico, at the time of the Conquest, restricting
and regulating the use of pulque. This was distributed by the
priests at certain festivals only. These and other rigid measures

194 KEY-NOTE OF AKCIENT

evidently dictated by a spirit of reform, as well as the close union
of both cults, seem to have eiliciently maintained a certain equilib
rium. At the same time two different moral standards were thus
inevitably evolved by the votaries of both cults and naturally pro
foundly affected the position of woman. The dangers and evils
attendant upon the earth-cult became irretrievably associated with
the female sex and the votaries of Heaven naturally came to re
gard woman as a source of temptation and degradation. In ancient
Mexico and Peru the celibacy of the sun-priests and of a certain
number of noblewomen, " the Virgins of the Sun, " was enforced ;
thus, whilst the position of woman wras being lowered in one caste
by an artificial set of ideas, it was raised in the other by an equally
fictitious association with the Above, which led, however, to her
real elevation of mind and character and finally enforced a recog
nition of her individuality. The consecration of her person, which
caused her to assume a position commanding universal homage,
relieved her from heavy labor but caused her to be guarded and
protected. She was thus condemned to a still greater seclusion, the
primary object of which was to remove her from possible contact
with members of the lower earthly caste. For, whilst ceremonial
usage even required that the male members of the upper caste should
associate in certain symbolical rites with the chief women of the
lower order, it was a crime and a desecration for a man of the
latter caste to approach a woman of the nobility. These could
only marry in their own caste or remain celibate and were kept
aloof from all debasing influences, inside of protecting walls.

Reflection shows that such conditions would inevitably lead to
the formation of a nobility whose ideal was celibacy and whose
" Virgins of the Sun," by virtue of their consecration, ranked
highest amongst the women of the "celestial caste." Those who
married did so in their own caste, led a life of seclusion and
always maintained a position of superiority over all women of the
" earthly caste." The latter, on the other hand, had the preroga
tive of being the representatives of their caste, since the cult of
the earth -mother necessitated a female representative, high-priest
esses and also female chiefs in their own rights. We know that,
in ancient Mexico, an independent gynocracy had been founded at
one time. From certain native manuscripts and monuments we
have positive evidence that a number of independent female chief
tains ruled over minor communities and represented them oflicially,
630

AMKRM'AN < I V IU/ ATK >NS. 195

their rank and insignia being equal to that of the chiefs of male
communities. At the same time, from the standpoint of the '• upper
caste, " the position and moral code of these li votaries of the
earth," were always viewed as inferior.

Another factor also exerted a marked and growing influence
upon the relative positions of the two classes of women. The en
forced seclusion of the noblewomen rendering out-door occupa
tions or work impossible, it became necessary to relegate such to
members of the lower caste who gradually constituted a class of
domestic slaves, dedicated to the service of the nobility. In an
cient Mexico, as a punishment for various crimes, such as murder,
theft, etc., an individual, even of the upper class, was reduced to
slavery as a punishment for his crime. The ranks of slaves were
also recruited from prisoners of war. On the other hand, the laws
regulating slavery were just and mild, the children of slaves were
born free and various modes of regaining freedom were afforded
to those held in bondage as an expiation for crime. The intro
duction of slaves necessitating, as it did, their classification with
the lower class, now associated servitude with the female division
of the community, and the idea arose that women and the lower
class existed for the benefit of the male element of the state and a
favored minority of consecrated women.

If slavery and bondage came to be regarded on the one hand
as a just punishment for crime, the idea of liberty shone as an in
centive to good conduct. An eloquent proof of the high estimate
in which personal freedom was regarded by the ancient Mexicans,
is furnished by the Nahuatl word, recorded by Olmos, for "free
man" = xoxouhqui-yollotl, literally, u fresh or green heart." This
expression is of particular interest because it explains a strange
mortuary custom which consisted in placing a piece of jade, chal-
chihuitl, or precious green stone, in the mouth of a noble person,
after death, saying that it was i4his heart." In the case of the
lower class a stone of little value, named texaxoctli, was employed.
In ancient Mexico, therefore, the presence of jade or any green
stone, in a grave, proved that the body was that of a free member
of the upper caste. It is evident that the employment of this
significant emblem was suggested by the Nahuatl word for " free
man," and constituted a sort of rebus expressing this title or rank.

In the Peabody Museum there are several specimens of jade celts,
collected by Dr. Karl Flint in Nicaragua, which had been cut into two

196 KEY-XOTK OF ANCIENT

or more pieces. Professor Putnam hud tbe satisfaction of discov
ering that these pieces from different graves fitted together. Mis
inference that the stone must have been rare and highly prized,
probably from some motive connected with native ritual, is fully
supported by the explanation afforded by the existence of the
Nahuatl word. It is evident that, in order to provide a dead kins
man with the mark of his rank, a living chief would gladly have
divided his own celt of jade, if, for some reason or other, no other
green stone was forthcoming at the time of burial.

Let us now rapidly enumerate a few facts which prove that not
only burial customs but also social organization and numerical
divisions were carried northward from the southern cradle of an
cient American civilization. I shall make two statements only,
hoping that competent authorities on North American tribal organ
ization, and amongst them, my esteemed friend and colleague, Miss
Alice C. Fletcher, will supply a number of authoritative reports on
these matters.

Referring to the writings of Horatio Hale, whose comparatively
recent loss will long be deeply felt by all students of aboriginal
history and languages, I quote the following sentences from his
interesting pamphlet on u Four Huron Wampum records," pub
lished, with notes and addenda by Prof. E. B. Tylor of Oxford,
in 1897.

" The surviving members of the Huron nation, even in its present
broken, dispersed and half extinct condition, still retain the mem
ory of their ancient claim to the headship of all the aboriginal

tribes of America north of Mexico The Hurons

or Wendat, as they should be properly styled, belonged to the im
portant group or linguistic stock, commonly known, from its prin
cipal branch, as the Iroquoian family and which includes, besides
the Huron and Iroquois nations, the Attiwendaronks, the Eries,
Audastes, Tuscaroras and Cherokees, all once independent and
powerful nations." (I draw attention to the detail that these
nations were seven in number.) Gallatin, in his " Synopsis of
the Indian tribes," notices the remarkable fact that while the "Five
Nations " or Iroquois proper were found by Champlain. on his ar
rival in Canada, to be engaged in deadly warfare with all the Al-
gonquian tribes within their reach, the Hurons, another Iroquoian
nation, were the head and principal support of the Algonquian con
federacy. In the " Fall of Hochelaga," Horatio Hale sets forth
(532

AMKKK AX ClVIIJZATfOX*. 197

the reasons which led to the division of the Ilurons and Iroqnois,
who had formerly dwelt together in friendly unison. The latter,
retreating to the south and augmented by other refugees, became
the •' Five Confederate Nations."

The " kingdom of Hochelaga," as Cartier styles it, comprised, be
sides the fortified city of that name, the important town of Stad-
acone (commonly known to its people as Canada or u the town ")
and eight or nine other towns along the great river. According to
their tradition the name of their leader, Sut-staw-ra-tse, had been
kept up by descent for seven or eight hundred years.

"Towards the conclusion of a long and deadly warfare between
the Iroquois confederates and Canada as well as the Ilurons a
remarkable change had taken place in their character ; a change
which recalls that which is believed to have been developed in the
character of the Spartans under the institutions of Lycurgus,
and the similar change which is known to have appeared in the
character of the Arabians under the influence of Mohammedan
precepts. A great reformer had arisen in the person of the Onon-
daga chief, Hiawatha, who, imbued with an overmastering idea,
had inspired his people with a spirit of self-sacrifice, which stopped
at no obstacle in the determination of carrying into effect their
teacher's sublime purpose. This purpose was the establishment of
universal peace . . . The Tionontate or Tobacco Nation
seem to have made an alliance with the Huron nation.

" Eight clans or gentes composed the Huron people and were
found in different proportions in all the tribes. These clans, called
by the Algonquiaus u totems," all bore the names of certain ani
mals, with which the Indians held themselves to be mythologically
connected — the bear, wolf, deer, porcupine, snake, hawk, large
tortoise and small tortoise. Each clan was more numerous in some
towns than in others, as it was natural that near kindreds should
cluster together.

" The five Iroquois nations also had eight clans. . . . The
Iroquois league is spoken of in their Book of Rites as kanasta-
tsi-koma, " the great framework " and the large, bent frame-poles
of their council-house, the exact original shape of which is not
known, were named kan-asta."

An examination of the signs woven in the famous wampum
belts of the Hurous and Iroquois reveals some curious facts.

198 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

One of these treaty belts, described by Horatio Hale, commemo
rates an alliance formed between four nations. It exhibits four
squares (fig. 54, a") " which indicate, in the Indian hieroglyphic
system, either towns or tribes with their territory."1 This mode of
representing a nation is of utmost interest, not only because it co
incides with the Maya conception of "the quadrated" earth but
because it also reveals that, in North America, the Indians asso
ciated a tribal organization with a quadriform. What is more, an
older belt, which is unfortunately incomplete, exhibits a central
oval (lig. 54, b} between a bird ami a quadruped and three crosses
with a circle uniting their branches. The cross and circle, being
a native symbol for " an integral state," as definitely proven by
the Maya map, justifies the suggestion that this symbol on the wam
pum belt may have had the significance of " nation" and central

i — i government. It is re-

BI 'I I1' mark able that the Iro-

ii H i — *-—* — — | quois central capital,

"(|H" ' — j — i i — j — I Ho-che-laga, can be an-

'• •' alyzed in the Maya

tongue, as meaning five
FIG- 54' = ho, tree = die or hoch

II
I

= vase (symbol of centre) whilst the terminal /(M/a might possibly
be a form of hican = banner, an object so frequently associated
with names of towns in Mexico, where it yields the sound pan and
means on or above something.

It will be interesting and important to learn what " Hochelaga "
means in the Iroquois language. The resemblance between the
Maya and Iroquois symbols for nation and tribal territory and of
the names for capital might even be overlooked and treated as a
coincidence merely, if the Iroquois name for the confederacy,
kan-asta tsik-o-ma did not also begin with the word kan, the Maya
for four and for serpent. The same particle recurs in the Iroquois
name for the town = can-ada, a word which, in Maya, would
describe a metropolis divided into four quarters.

The question naturally suggests itself whether the aflix can,
frequently met with in Mexico combined with names of localities,
was not of Maya origin and expressed also a centre of quadruple

1 Dr. Hale states that these squares remind us of the similar Chinese character
which represents the word " field " (p. 241).

634

AMKKK'AN CIVILIZATIONS.

l'J9

government. It occurs in the Nahuatl name for metropolis to-
tec-ua can and in Teoti-hua cnii, for instance. The Nahuatl
scholars have rendered its meaning as u place of."

Mr. Hale tells 113 that, amongst the " Five Nations," the tradi
tion exists that the confederacy was originally divided into '• seven
tribes," each of which was composed of 2x4=8 gentes or
clans. Another wampum belt he figures exhibits a heart between
2X2=4 squares, a symbol which would be interpreted by a Mex-
can or Maya as well as by a Huron or Iroquois, as meaning kt four
nations, one heart," the latter being as common a symbol for
union of rule or government or for chieftain, as a '• head."

Combined with other testimony it seems impossible to evade the
question whether in remote times the Iroquois and Hurons had not
shared in some way or other the civilization of the Mayas. If so
the ancient earthwork-builders of the Ohio valley, who are authori
tatively regarded as of southern origin by Professor Putnam, and
whose art exhibits a strong resemblance to that of the Mayas,
seem to constitute the missing link between the northeastern and
the southeastern tribes. It is curious to find that the terminal c/te,
which occurs in the name Quiche and which signifies in Maya, tree,
and, by extension, tribe, is preserved in the names of the Nat-che-z
tribe still inhabiting the Mississippi valley. It is also present in
Coman-che, Apa-che, etc

It is to be hoped that, before long, authorities who have made
special studies of the above tribes will make searching compari
sons of their languages, social organization and symbolism with
that of the Mayas, in particular, it seeming evident that the coast
communication along the gulf of Mexico, from Yucatan to the
mouth of the Mississippi river, was not only easy but was favored
by sea-currents.

It is interesting to note that if we now proceed to the southwest
of the United States and study the Pueblo people, we seem to find
not only more distinctly marked affinities between their customs,
etc., and those of the Mexicans, but also traces of similarity with
certain Maya symbols.

In several important publications Dr. J. Walter Fewkes has
made the valuable observation that there are marked k' resem
blances bet ween a ceremony practised [at the time of the Conquest]
in the heart of Mexico and one still kept up in Arizona," and

200 KKY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

states that these "lead one to look for likenesses in symbolism,
especially that pertaining to the mythological Snake among the two
peoples." He continues as follows: u From the speculative side
it seems probable that there is an intimate resemblance between
some of the ceremonials, the symbolism and mythological systems
of the Indians of Tusayau and those of the more cultured stocks of
Central America. . . . The facts here recorded look as if the
llopi practise a ceremonial form of worship with strong allinities
to the Nahuatl and Maya ... I have not yet seen enough
evidence to convince me that the -Ilopi derived their cult and cere
monials from the Zuiiians or from auy other single people. It is
probably composite. I am not sure that portions of it were not
brought up from the far south, perhaps from the Salado and Gila
by the Bat-kin-ya-muh := ' Water people,' whose legendary history
is quite strong that they came from the south."1

Dr. Fewkes frankly states that he "knows next to nothing of
the symbolic characters of the Mexican deities . . ." and quotes
Mr. Bandelier's opinion that " there are traces or tracks of the
same mythological system and symbolism amongst the Indians of
the southwestern United States and the aborigines of Central
America."

Under the leadership of Mr. Frank II. Gushing let us now enter
into the life and thoughts of the modern Zunis. After having
traced certain ideas in Mexico and Peru, it is possible to rec
ognize them again when we find them in Mr. Cushing's valuable
work, from which I shall quote somewhat at length, referring the
reader, however, to the original, for a fuller realization of existing
resemblances.2

The Ztirii creation-myth relates how the light of the Sun-father
and a foam-cap on the sea, caused the Earth-mother to give birth
to twin-brothers, Uauam Achi Piah-Zcoci, " the Beloved Twain who
descended." The first was Uanam Ehkona — the beloved Preceder,
the second Uanam Yaluna, the beloved Follower ; they were twin-
brothers of light, yet elder and younger, the right and left, like
to question and answer in deciding and doing. . . . The

1 A Central American ceremony which suggests the snake dance of the Tusayan
villagers. Reprint from The American Anthropologist, vol. vi, no. :?, July, 18U3. cf.
'Bandolier, Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the Southwestern
United States. Archaeol. Inst. Papers, Am. series, iv, pp. 586-591 .

2Thirteenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington, 1896.

G3G

AMKKIC'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 2U1

Sun-father gave them the thunderbolts of the four quarters, l\v<>
apiece. . . . On their cloud-shield, even as a spider in her
web desccndeth, they descended into the underworld. . . . (p.
38 1 ) .

Pausing here for a moment, we note the curious fact that in the
Zufii name for the twins we find A'oa, resembling the Nahuatl coatl
= twin or serpent; that the name of one brother Ehk-ona recalls
the Mexican ec-atl = air, wind or breath, and the Maya ik = air,
wind, breath, courage, spirit. The allotment of two quarters to
each and the image of a spider employed to express their descent
from heaven have counterparts in Nahuatl lore.

The " Twain "... guided men upwards to become the
fathers of six kinds of men (yellow or tawny, grey, red, white,
mingled and black). . . . The nation divided itself into the

winter or Macaw and the summer or Raven people

" The Twain beloved gathered in council for the naming and selec
tion of man groups and creature kinds, spaces and things. They
determined that the creatures and things of summer and the south
ern space pertained to the southern people or children of the pro
ducing Earth-mother ; and those of the winter and northern space
to the winter people or children of the Forcing or Quickening
Sky-father."

It is impossible to do more than refer the reader to Mr. Cush-
ing's account of the origin of totem clans and creature-kinds which
bears such an affinity to the Peruvian, and obviously arose for the
same practical reason, to serve as distinction marks for identifica
tion and classification. " At first . . . there were four bands of
priest-keepers of the mysteries : the Shiwana-kwe =. priesthood of
the priest-people ; Sa'niah'-ya-kwe = priesthood of the Hunt ; Ach-
iahya-kwe — great Knife people ; Xcwe-kwe = keepers of the magic
medicines." Out of these four divisions "all societies were formed,
both that of the Middle and the twain for each of all six regions,
constituting the tabooed and sacred 13." In another passage ac
count is given of the marriage of a brother and sister, which pro
duced twelve children, the first of which, Illamon, was man and
woman combined — the 12 thus constituting in reality 13.

One of the most interesting portions of the Zuni narrative is one
which elucidates the motive which led to the migration of peoples
in ancient America. We are told how generations of the fore
fathers of the Zunis wandered about in search of the stable middle

037

202 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

of the earth, oil which they wished to found their sacred city. The
tribe divided ; the winter-clan journeyed to the northeast and the
summer-clan to the southwest, a reunion of the people took place,
and a council was held for the determination of the true Middle
. . . . According to a myth the Sun-father requested the water-
skate to determine the Middle. This mythical monster lifted him
self up, stretched out and then settled downward, calling out:
u Where my heart and navel rest beneath them mark ye the spot
and then build ye a town of the midmost, for there shall be the
midmost of the Earth-mother, even the navel. . . . And when
he descended squatting, his belly rested over the plain and valley
of Zuni and when he drew in his finger-legs, lo ! there were the
trail roads leading out and in like the stays of a spider's net, into
and forth from the place he had covered."

Pausing to point out that fig. 28, reproduced from Mexican Codi
ces, shows curious topographical drawings resembling a spider's net,
I will not recount the many disappointments of the wanderers, who
were evidently driven away from several places of settlement by
earthquakes, but will refer to the Zuni custom of "annually testing
the stability of the Middle in middle time . . . when the sun
reached the middle between winter and summer ... a shell
was laid by the sacred fire of the north . . . When during
solemn chanting no trembling of the earth ensued, the priests cast
new fire and . . . dwelt happily feeling sure that their sacred
things were resting in the stable middle of the world."

At the beginning of this paper I referred to the powerful hold
that the realization of the fixity of the pole star would naturally
have exerted upon the mind of primitive man, and I can produce
no more striking illustration of this and of my view that the idea
of central government and organization had been suggested by
Polaris, than this account of the earnest and prolonged search of
these ancient people for the stable centre of the earth, on which to
found a permanent centre of terrestrial rule or the plan of the
celestial government. At the same time it seems to me that the
longing for a stable and fixed residence would naturally have
been most intense amongst people who had experienced terrible
earthquakes and been driven out of their original abodes by their
repeated destruction. It is unnecessary to mention the well-known
fact that whilst earthquakes prevail throughout North and Central
America, the most impressive trace of catastrophes of the kind
(',38

AMKHIOAX CIVILIZATIONS. 203

are connected with the gigantic volcanoes of Central Mexico and
Guatemala.

With a sympathetic insight into the disasters which seem to have
driven the wandering tribes from one region to another and filled
them with a passionate yearning for a centre of rest, let us now
learn from Mr. Gushing how they planned their metropolis and
organized themselves, when they had found the long-looked-for
goal, in the Zufii valley and "settling there, built seven great cities
therein.

"All their subtribes and lesser tribes were distinctively related to
and ruled from a central tribe and town through priest chiefs rep
resentatives of each of these, sitting under supreme councilor sep-
tuarchy of the " Master priests of the house " in the central town
itself, much as were the divisions and cities of the great Inca do
minion in South America represented at and ruled from Cuzco, the
central city and power of them all.

" Zuiii is divided, not always clearly to the eye, but very clearly
in the estimation of the people themselves, into seven parts, cor
responding not perhaps in arrangement topographically, but in
scheme to their subdivisions of the worlds or world-quarters of
this world. Thus one division of the town is supposed to be re
lated to the north and to be centred in its kiva or estufa which
may or may not be at its centre ; another division represents the
west,, another the south, another the east; yet another the upper
world and another the lower world ; while a final division represents
the middle or mother and synthetic combination of the all in the
world.

"By reference to the early Spanish history of the pueblos, it may
be seen that when discovered the Ashiwis or Zufiis were living in
seven quite widely separated towns the celebrated seven cities of
Cibola and that this theoretic subdivision of the only one of these
towns now remaining is in some manner a survival of the original
subdivision of the tribes into seven into as many towns. It is
evident that in both cases, however, the arrangement was and is,
if we may call it such, a mythic organization ; hence my use of
the term of mytho-saciologic organization of the tribe. At all
events this is the key to their sociology as well as to their mythic
conception of space and universe.

" . . . There were nineteen clans, grouped in threes, t<> cor
respond to the mythic subdivision. Three to north, west, south,

204 KKY-NOTE OF ANC1KXT

east, Upper, Lower. The sinyle clan of Macaw is midmost or of
middle and also as the all containing and mother clan of the entire
tribe, for in it is " the seed of the priesthood of houses " supposed
to be preserved.1

" Finally, as produced from all the clans and as representative,
alike of all the clans and through a tribal septuarchy of all the
regions and divisions of the midmost and, finally, as represen
tative of all the cult societies above mentioned, is the Kaka or
A'kAkA-kwe or Mythic Dance drama people or organization.

"It may be seen of these mytho-spciologic organizations that they
are a system within a system and that it contains systems within
systems all founded on the classification according to the six-fold
division of things and in turn the six-fold division of each of these
divisions of things . . . The tribal division made up of the
clans of the north take precedence ceremonially, occupying the po
sition of elder brother or the oldest ancestor. The west is the
younger brother to this and the south of the west, the east of
south, etc. . . . while the middle is supposed to be a represen
tative being, the heart and name of all of the brothers of the re
gions, the first and last, as well as elder and younger.

"To such an extent indeed, is this tendency to classify according
to the number of the six regions with its seventh synthesis of them
all (the hitter sometimes apparent, sometimes non-appearing) that
not only are the subdivisions of the societies also again subdivided
according to this arrangement, but each clan is subdivided, both
according to the six-fold arrangement and according to the subsid
iary relations of the six parts of its totem.

"In each clan is to be found a set of names, called the names of
childhood. These names are more of titles than of cognomens.
They are determined upon by sociological divinistic modes and
are bestowed in childhood as the " verity names " or titles of the
children to whom given. But the body of names relating to any
one totem, for instance, to one of the beast totems, will not be the
name of the totem-beast itself but will be the names of both of the
the totems and its various conditions and of the various pans of
the totem or of its functions, or o*f its attributes, actual or myth
ical.

i In abbreviated form I note here, inviting special comparison with Mexico, th:it
the /uFii Upper world was symboli/.ed by the sun, eiigle and turquoise; the Lower
world by the r.-iUlesnake, water and toad.

(UO

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 205

"Now these parts or functions, or attributes of the parts or func
tions, are subdivided also in a six-fold manner, so that the name
relating to one member of the totem, for example, like the right leg
or arm of the animal thereof, would correspond to the north and
would be the first in honor in a clan (not itself of the northern
group) ; then the name relating to another member, say the left
leg and its powers, etc., would pertain to the west and would be
second in honor, . . . the right foot, pertaining to the south,
would be third in honor, . . . the tail to the lower regions and
be sixth in honor; while the heart and navel and centre of the be
ing would be first as well as last in honor." ... In addressing
each other the word symbol for elder or younger is always used.

"With such a system of arrangement as all this maybe seen
to be, with such a facile device for symbolizing the arrangement
(not only according to the number of regions, and their subdivis
ions in their relative succession and the succession of their ele
ments and seasons, but also in the colors attributed to them) and,
finally, with such an arrangement of names, correspondingly classi
fied and of terms of relation significant of rank rather than of
consanguineal connection, mistake in the order of a ceremonial, a
procession or a council is simply impossible and the people employ
ing these devices may be said to have written and to be writing
their statutes and laws in all their daily relationship and utter
ances."

If this precious exposition of the Zuni social organization teaches
us more about native method and system than all of the writings
of the Spanish chroniclers put together, there is one important
point which, strangely enough, is not touched upon, namely, the
regulation of time. All information concerning native astronomy,
and the subdivision of the years, the festival periods and the names
of days, seems to have been withheld from Mr. Gushing by the
Zimi priesthood, if we are to assume that they possess a calendar.

In Mexico, as I have already set forth, the calendar system is
bound up in the scheme of social organization and it is impossi
ble to separate them. I cannot but think that it must be the same
with the Zunis but that, as in ancient Mexico, only the priesthood
were acquainted with the existence of a systematic calendar, and
kept it a profound secret from the multitude, although the entire
communal life and activities of the people were guided accordingly
p. M. PAPERS i 41 G41

206 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

by their rulers, who had arranged a suitable time for all tilings, at
proper seasons.

Having obtained through Mr. dishing invaluable material for the
making of a composite image of the ancient American civilization
let us now proceed to Yucatan, bearing in mind the native mode
of thought and master-passion for systematization.

A careful perusal of Cogolludo and Landa's work affords such
interesting glimpses into the past history of the inhabitants of the
Yucatan peninsula, that they merit presentation in a separate pub
lication. Suffice it for the present to refer more fully to a few lead
ing facts which will be found to illustrate the development of the
ancient civilization in the preceding pages.

The native opinion already cited was that a great chief or lord,
named Kukulcan, reigned at Chichen-Itza, Yucatan, whilst this
was occupied by the Itza tribe, which was driven from it in about
270 A.D. by the Tutul-xius who were entitled " holy men." Their
name justifies Brnsseur de Bourbourg's inference that the conquer
ors may have been a Nahnatl tribe whose name was that of the
much-prized blue-bird, Xinh-tototl.

At the same time the fact that the Maya word for supreme lord
and Master (also applied to the divinity) is Gin-mil seems to indi
cate that there may be a deeper origin and that the Xiuh-tototl
may have only been a rebus employed by the Mexicans to convey
the sound of a Maya title, possibly " Kukul-Ciu," if the above
title " holy men" is to be regarded as a translation of Tutul-xiu.

" Kukulcan had no wife or children and was venerated in Yuca
tan as a god because he was a great republican, as was shown by
the order he instituted in Yucatan after the death of the native
rulers. He went to Mexico whence he returned. He was there
named Quetzalcoatl and was venerated by the Mexicans as one of
their gods." When he had entered into treaty with the native chiefs
inhabiting the country, they agreed to join him in founding and
peopling a city which was named Mayapan, but was also known
by the natives as Ichpa, meaning " inside of the circles.1" " They
proceeded, indeed, to build a circular walled enclosure with two en-

1 Landa states that Mayapan signified " the banner of Maya," the latter being the
name of the " tongue of land" on which the capital was situated. This explanation
is, however, scarcely satisfactory, for pantli is Nahnatl. If the entire word be re
garded as Nahnatl, we obtain " the banner of the hand." As another Maya name for
the capital was JIo and this means five it seems possible that this numeral and sound
were actually expressed by an open hand and that the Nahuatl name thus arose.

042

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 207

trances only. In its centre, the principal temple was erected and
it was circular, with four doors opening to the cardinal points, like
one which had been built by Kukulcan at Chicheu-ltza. The walled
circle also contained other sacred edifices and houses intended to
be inhabited by the lords only, who divided up the entire land
amongst themselves. Towns were assigned to each according to
the antiquity of his lineage and personal distinction. Kukulcan
lived in this town for some years with these lords and leaving them
in amity and peace returned to Mexico by the same way as on his
visit, lingering on the way in order to build a quadriform temple
on an island off the coast."

I know of no more instructive account of aboriginal history than
this simple native record preserved by Landa, which so clearly re
veals amongst other details that the Mexican culture-hero was an
actual personage, a Maya high-priest who had been a ruler at Chi-
chen-Itza. In this connection it is interesting to collate another
chapter of Landa's work in which he reports what the oldest In
dians narrated to him about Chichen-ltza, of which I give the fol
lowing somewhat abbreviated translation : Three brothers came
there in olden times from the west and having assembled together
a large number of people, ruled them for some years with much
justice and peace.1 They paid great honor to their god and built
many beautiful edifices. . . . They lived without wives in pu
rity and virtue and as long as they did this they were esteemed and
obeyed by all. In course of time one of them possibly died, but is
said by the Indians to have gone out of the country. Whatever
may have been the cause of his absence the remaining rulers imme
diately began to show partiality and to institute such licentious
and abominable customs that they were finally execrated by the
people who rebelled and killed them, and then disbanded and aban
doned the capital, " although this was most beautiful and was sur
rounded by fertile provinces."2

The principal edifice at Chichen-ltza was a pyramid temple which

1 As throughout America four brothers are always found associated, In consequence
of the general spread of the quadruple organization, the fact that three rulers only
are mentioned here and that three powerful tribes were found in possession of Yuca
tan, indicates that these must have separated themselves from their original State.
The subsequent reduction of their number to two shows further dissension.

2 It seems reasonable to refer to tin's date the expulsion of the Maya tribe, the
Huaxtekans, who founded their colony at I'anuco, named their capital Tuch-pan and
carried with them their execrable practices and ideas. At the same time they pos
sessed and handed down such a proficiency in tiie art of weaving that at the time of

043

208 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

had four stairways facing the cardinal points. It contained a cir
cular temple which was named after the builder Kukulcan and had
four doorways opening to the four quarters of heaven.

If I have dwelt again upon Kukulcan ==. Quetzalcoatl, it is be
cause, between the writers who interpret the records concerning
him as a sun or star-myth and those who identify him as the abstract
deity whose name he bore as a title only, or as St. Thomas or a
mythical Norseman, ancient America is being deprived of its most
remarkable historical personage.

Collated with the Maya traditional records, the Mexican accounts
agree and supply missing evidence. Whilst the Mayas state that
their ruler and legislator went to Mexico and even record his Mex
ican name, Montezuma informs Cortes that "his ancestors had been
conducted to Mexico by a ruler, Quetzalcoatl, whose vassals they
were and who having established them in a colony returned to his
native land. Later on he returned and wished them to leave with
him but they chose to remain, having married women of the country,
raised families and built towns. Nor would they institute him
again as their lord, so he went away again toward the east, whence
be had come." It seems nearly proven that Kukulcan was one of
the three rulers who came to Yucatan from the east. The Mexi
can tradition that he was driven into exile by his enemies, the fol
lowers of Tezcatlipoca, the lord of the Below, appears to be
corroborated by the Maya record that, after his restraining pres
ence had been removed, they committed such excesses that the in
dignant population arose and murdered their two rulers at Chichen-
Itza. Quetzalcoatl's continued efforts to assemble scattered tribes,
to organize them peacefully under central governments, to found
capitals and erect in the centre of these quadriform pyramids and
circular temples, prove how completely he was possessed by the
idea of spreading the well-known scheme of civilization. His very
name in Maya signified " the divine Four " and this more profound
signification was hidden under the image of the "• feathered ser
pent " employed as a rebus to express the title of the supreme Being
and the high-priest, his earthly representative.

Montezuma the most beautiful textile fabrics, furnished to him as tribute, were the
Iluaxteean " centzon-tilmatli " or mantles of four hundred colors, " finely woven and
covered with intricate and artistic designs." This circumstance points to a possible
connection with Zilan, the reputed Maya centre of female industry. It has been
stated by good authorities that the only antiquities thus far found in America, which
testify to the existence of a degraded and obscene cult, are from the region of Panuco.

644

AMKKICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 209

The Mexican records state that the culture-hero's white robes
were covered with red crosses, and that he set up cross-emblems.
Evidence showing how completely this builder and founder of cities
carried out the idea of the Four Quarters, in the temples he erected
in Mexico, is preserved by the record that for prayer, penitence
and fasting, he prepared four rooms which he occupied in rotation.
These were respectively decorated in blue, green, red and yellow,
by means of precious stones, feather-work and gold. As these
were the colors assigned to the Four Quarters their symbolism and
meaning are obvious, and it may be inferred that the same method
of decorating the sides of buildings or doorways, with these four
colors, may have been carried out in square sacred edifices oriented
to the cardinal points.

It is curious to detect the quadruplicate idea in the title Holcan
given to certain war-chiefs. This name signifies, literally, "the
head of four," but could be expressed by the rebus of a u ser
pent's head," which would obviously have been employed in pictog
raphy to express the title and rank. The existence of the title
u Four-head," or " the head of four," obviously relates to the ruler-
ship of the Four Quarters, united in one person ; and in this connec
tion the Tiahuanaco swastika (fig. 48), terminating in four pumas'
heads, seems to gain in significance as the expressive symbol of a
central ruler. The recorded custom to cover the body of the Mex
ican ruler with the raiment of the " four principal gods," proves
the prevalence of analogous symbolism.

From the following data we gain an interesting view of the
events which transpired in former times in the Yucatan peninsula.
Resuming Lauda's account we see that, after Kuoulcan had de
parted for Mexico, the lords of Mayapan decided to confer supreme
rulership upon the Cocomes, this being the most ancient and the
wealthiest lineage and its chief being distinguished for bravery.
They then decided that the inner circle should hold only the temples
and houses for the lords and high-priest. In connection with this
it is well to insert here how Landa states, in another passage, that
there were "twelve priests or lords at Mayapan," which with the
high-priest constituted the sacred 13. " Outside the wall they built
houses where each lord kept some servitors and where his people
or vassals could resort when they came on business to the town.
Each of these houses had its steward, entitled Caluac, who bore a
staff of office and he kept an account with the towns and with

645

210 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

their local rulers. The Caluac always went to his lord's house,
saw what he required and obtained from the vassals all he needed
in the way of provisions, clothing, etc." (op. cit., pp. 34-44).

The chronicle goes on to relate how the lords of the inner circle
devoted their time to the affairs of government, the regulation of
the calendar and the study of writing, medicine, and the sciences.1

It seems significant that, throughout Central America, two ruined
cities of about equal size are usually found in comparatively close
proximity to each other, and seemingly pertaining to the same cul
ture. Thus we have Quirigua, in the valley of the Motagua river,
and Copan its sister-city, situated at a distance of about twenty-
five miles, but nearly 1,800 feet above it, in the wooded hills. Be
tween Palenque and Menche (Lorillarcl City) there are about fifty
miles, whilst Tikal and Ixkun are forty miles apart. In Yucatan,
as we have learned from Bishop Landa's " Relacion," there were
Mayapan and Zilan, and as the latter name also signified " em
broidery " it looks as though it had been a noted centre of female
industry.

Then, after a lapse of years, "a large number of tribes, with
their lords, came to Yucatan from the south." Bishop Landa con
jectures that, although his informants did not know this for certain,
" these tribes must have come from Chiapas, many words and the
conjugation of some verbs being the same in Yucatan as in Chia
pas where there existed great signs showing that ancient capitals
had been devastated and abandoned," possibly by earthquakes,
famine, disease or warfare. It has been surmised that the vener
able Bishop alluded, in this sentence, to the ruins of Palenque in
Chiapas.

Although not mentioned by Cogolludo or Lizana it is accepted
that the new-comers were the Tutul-xius. According to an ancient
Maya chronicle, "at a elate corresponding to 401 A.D., the four
Tutul-xius had fled from the house of Nonoual, to the west of
Zuiva and came from the land of Tulapan. Four eras passed be
fore they reached the peninsula of Yucatan named Chac-noui-tan
under their chieftain, IIolon-Chan-Tepeuh," a name which is equally
intelligible in Mava, Tzendal and Nahuatl and means Head-Ser-

1 It is interesting to note in the above description absolutely no mention of woman
in the organization of Mayapan. It is therefore to be presumed that they were ex
cluded from this capital, and inhabited, as in Mexico, their own town, under female
rulership and that of the " lords of the Night."

G4G

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 211

pent iiiul •' lord of the mountain," according to Brasseur de Bour-
bourg, who states that the latter was a sovereign title amongst the
Quiches.

Landa relates that, after wandering about Yucatan for forty
years (possibly in search of the stable centre) these tribes settled
near Mayapan, subjected themselves to its laws and lived in peace
ful friendship with the Cocomes. The new-comers brought with
them the atlatl or spear-thrower which is minutely described but
is evidently regarded as a weapon of the chase.1 The chronicle
goes on to nan-ate that the Cocom governor, having become ambi
tious for riches, entered into a treaty with Mexican warriors who
were garrisoned at Tabasco and Xicalango by the Mexican ruler
and induced them to come to Mayapan and to aid him in oppress
ing the native lords. The latter and the Tutul-xius rebelled against
this action and, having observed the Mexicans and become experts
in the art of using their bow and arrow, lance, hatchet, shield and
other defensive armor, they " ceased to admire and fear the Mex
icans and began to make little of them, and in this condition they
remained for some years."

A lapse of years passed and another Cocom chief formed a fresh
league with the Tabasco people. More Mexican warriors came to
Mayapau and supported him in tyrannizing and making slaves of
the lower class. Then the Tutulxiu lords assembled and decided
to murder the Cocom ruler. Having done so they also killed all
his sons with the exception of one who was absent ; burnt their
houses and seized their plantations of cocoa and other fruits, say
ing that these compensated for what had been stolen from them.
The differences which subsequently arose between the Cocome and
the Xius people resulted in the final destruction and abandonment
of Mayapan after an occupation of more than five hundred years,
both tribes returning to their countries.

" The lords who destroyed Mayapan (about 120 years before the
Conquest) carried away with them their books of science .
The son of the Cocom lord, who being absent had escaped death,
returned and gathered his relations and vassals together and founded
a capital . . . Many towns were built by them in the hills
and many families descended from these Cocomes. These lords
of Mayapau did not revenge themselves upon the Mexican vvar-

1 See the Atlatl or Spear-thrower of the Ancient Mexicans. I'eabody Museum
Papers, vol. I, uo. 8. Cambridge, 1891.

047

212 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

viors but generously exonerated them from blame because they
were strangers and had been persuaded to come into the land
by its former ruler. They allowed them to remain unmolested in
the country and to found a city on condition that they kept to
themselves and married in their own tribe only. These Mexicans
decided to settle in Yucatan and peopled the province of Can-ul
which was assigned to them and they continued to live there until
the second invasion of the Spaniards."

At Chichen-Itza, situated at about twenty-three leagues from
the ancient site of Mayapan, there exists substantial evidence of
the existence of these Aztec warriors, with indications that they
pertained to the Mexican warrior- caste of the ocelots or tigers.
It is a recognized fact that the remarkable bas-reliefs, which still
cover the walls of the '• temple of the tigers " at Chichen-Itza, are
strikingly Aztec in every detail. The exact counterparts of the
Atlatls, they hold, are visible on the so-called " Stone of Tizoc" in
the city of Mexico. Sculptured on the wall opposite the entrance
of the temple there are about thirty-six war-chiefs grouped in three
parallel rows of twelve each, the majority of whom are apparently
rendering some form of homage to a seated personage surrounded
by rays, while others are having an encounter with a monstrous ser
pent. On the side walls and slanting roofs more warriors are fig
ured, many accompanied by a rebus or hieroglyph which evidently
records, in Mexican style, individual names. The total number of
sculptured warriors seems to have been about one hundred. If
each of these represented, as may be supposed, a" count of men,"
it is evident that a large force of Aztec soldiers must have lived
in Yucatan at one time.

Other interesting monuments at Chichen-Itza deserve a passing
mention. Mr. Teobert Maler (Yukatekische Forschungen, Globus,
1895, p. 284) relates that there are two pyramid-temples in the
terraces of which the remains of great stone tables have been
found. He states that one of these tables was originally sup
ported by two rows of seven sculptured caryatids and by a central
row of plain columns with flat, square tops. Traces of paint showed
that the figures had been painted, that a yellow-brown color had
predominated, but that all ornaments or accessories were either
blue or green. The caryatids exhibited a variety of costume and
of size and each showed a marked individuality. The second table
standing in a larger temple, was originally painted red and sup-
648

AMKKK'AN CIVILIZATIONS. 213

ported by twenty- four caryatid figures which resemble each other
closely, show no individuality and which seem to have been dis
posed in two rows of twelve each. Mr. Maler infers from this
that, being more highly conventionalized, they were of a later date
than the previous examples. If it were not for the circumstance
that both tables had the same number of supports their numeral
24 might pass unobserved. As it is, I shall recur to it on mention
ing other monuments with figures yielding the same number and
disposed, in one case, as G X 4. In connection with these stone
tables 1 recall the fact that, in the Maya language, they were called
Mayac-tun.

Mr. W. 11. Holmes (cy>. c#., p. 134) tells us that in one case the
continuous table had been formed b}T a series of limestone tablets
averaging three feet square and five or six inches thick, each slab
having been supported by two of the dwarfish figures which stand
with both hands aloft, giving a broad surface of support. He
ascertained that " these slabs were wonderfully resonant and when
struck lightly with a hammer or stone, give out tones closely re
sembling those of a deeply resonant bell, and the echoes awakened
in the silent forest are exceedingly impressive." Mr. Holmes' ac
count of these resonant stone tables is of particular value to me
because it throws an interesting light upon the following Maya
words : I have already stated that the native name for table is
Mayac, and that a stone table is Mayac-tun. The word tun, how
ever, not only signifies stone, but also sound and noise. From
this it would seem that stone tables such as Mr. Holmes describes
were made expressly for the purpose of emitting sound and em
ployed like the huehuetl or wooden drums of the ancient Mexicans
to summon the people to the temple and to guide the sacred
dances.

The existence of the word tun-kul, which is either " stone-
bowl " or u sound-bowl," seems likewise to indicate that hollow
stone vessels were used at one time as gongs. At the present
day the Mayas name the small wooden drum of the Mexicans a
'• tunkul," whereas its Nahuatl name is " te-ponaxtli," the prefix of
which, curiously enough, seems also to be connected with tetl — stone.
A curious light is shed upon the possible use of some of the many
stone vessels found in Mexico and Yucatan by the above linguistic
evidence.

In conclusion I quote Mr. Maler's authority for two points con-

G49

214 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

cerning Chichen-Itza which are not generally known. First, that
its name should be pronounced u Tsitsen-itsa," and, second, that
he saw there no less than five recumbent statues, holding circular
vessels. Each of these figures exhibits the same form of breast
plate as the Le Plongeon example now at the National Museum
of Mexico (pi. iv, fig. 1). Mr. Maler states that it seems to have
been the tribal mark of the Cocomes, the whilom rulers at Chi
chen-Itza ; but it is interesting to note the general resemblance of
this ornament to the blue plaque worn by the Mexican "Blue
Lord," the Lord of the Year and of. Fire, " Xiuhtecuhtli," who is
also usually represented with a Xiuh-tototl or u blue-bird " on the
front of his head-dress.

These facts seem to indicate that the characteristic breast-plate,
instead of being a mark of the Cocomes, may have been that of
the Tutul-Xius, and that this title has some connection with that
of Xiuh-tecuhtli, the Mexican "Lord of Fire." It has been al
ready set forth in the preceding pages that the sacred fire was
kindled in the stone vase held by the recumbent figures, a fact in
dicating that the identical form of cult was practised in Mexico
and at Chichen-Itza. This identity is satisfactorily accounted for
and explained if we accept the simple native records of the invita
tion extended to Mexican warriors by a Maya chieftain and their
subsequent permanent residence in Yucatan.

The limitations of my subject do not allow me to do more than
mention two other important ruined cities of Yucatan, Izamal and
Uxmal. I will however note that, judging from the illustrations
I have seen, Uxmal seems to be the >' Serpent-city" of America,
par excellence, its buildings exhibiting the most elaborate and pro
fuse employment of the serpent for symbolical decoration. One
inference from this might be that the serpent was the totemic ani
mal of the ancient builders of this city. The foregoing rapid
review of the native chronicles of Yucatan shows that even the
foundation of Mayapan was comparatively recent ; that the penin
sula had, in turn, harbored powerful tribes who had drifted thence
from the southwest and Mexican warriors whose aid had been sought
by consecutive rulers of Chichen-Itza. We see that Yucatan was
the meeting ground for Maya- and Nahuatl-speaking people and
that the tendency was to leave the peninsula in search of a more
favorable soil and climate as soon as opportunity was afforded.

Since the cradle of the Maya civilization is evidently not to be
G50

AMKR1CAN CIVILIZATIONS. 215

looked for in Yucatan, let us follow the clue; afforded by the native
traditions, transport ourselves to some of the most important
ruined cities of Central America and endeavor to wrest from their
monuments some knowledge of the social organization of their
ancient inhabitants. In order to institute this search under the
most favorable circumstances, I ventured to apply for guidance to
Mr. A. P. Maudslay who has made a more thorough, prolonged
and extensive study and exploration of these ruined cities than any
other person. Upon my request to formulate his opinion as to the
respective antiquity and chief characteristics of the most noted
sites, this distinguished explorer has most kindly authorized me to
publish the following note.

"But for a brief note in Nature (28th April, 1892), I have
never classified the ruins or attempted to give proofs of differences
in age of the monuments, but roughly you may safely class them
as follows : I am inclined to look on the Motagua river group as
the oldest. The Yucatan group is certainly the youngest. Of course
there are many other smaller differences between the groups and
much overlapping. Whichever group may be the oldest the art
is there already advanced and the decoration has taken forms which
must have occupied many kinds of workers to conventionalize from
natural objects."

1. On Motagua r Quirigua, Large monolithic stelae and al-

River. ( Copan. tars with figures and inscrip

tions carved on all four sides in
rather high relief, some groups
pictographic. No weapons of
war portrayed in the sculpture.

2. OnUsumacintofMenche, Stel?e are usually flat slabs

River 1 Tinamit, carved with fiSures and inscrip-

1 P:\lonque, tions 'm ^ow re^ef on ODe skte

I Ixknn only- External ornament of

the buildings usually moulded in

stucco. War-like weapons but

very scarce.

3. Tikal. Intermediate between Nos. 2

and 4, hut somewhat different
and distinct from either.

651

216 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

4. Yucatan, j Chichen-Itza, Stelae very few in number and

I Uxmal, etc. poorly cawed. Inscriptions

carved in stone are very scarce.
Inscriptions were probably
painted on the walls of the tem
ples. External ornament of
buildings formed by a mosaic
of cut stones somewhat resem
bling Zapotec or Aztec style.
Every man portrayed as a war
rior [on the bas-reliefs].

By means of the magnificent set of casts which Mr. A. P.
Maudslay has generously presented to the South Kensington Mu
seum, London, and with the aid of his monumental and splendidly
illustrated work on the Archaeology of Central America, which has
been appearing as a part of the Biologia Central!- Americana, edi
ted by Messrs. Godman and Salvin, I have been able to verify the
following facts which will be found to throw light on the purpose
and meaning of some of the ancient monuments.

Before examining the great, elaborately carved stelae which are
characteristic of Quirigua and Copan, let us search the native
chronicles for some clue explanatory of the purpose for which they
were erected.

Bishop Landa has transmitted to us some details about the de
stroyed metropolis of Mayapan given to him by Yucatec informants
who stated that " in the central square of that city there still were
7 or 8 stones, about ten feet high, rounded on one side and well
sculptured, which exhibit several rows of the native characters,
but were so worn that they had become illegible. It is supposed,
however, that they are the record of the foundation and destruc
tion of that capital. Similar, but higher monuments, are at Zilan,
a town on the coast. Interrogated as to the meaning of these
monoliths the natives answered : It had been or was customary
to erect similar stones at intervals of 20 years which was the num
ber by which they counted their eras." Bishop Landa subsequently
remarks that " this statement is not consistent," for, according to
this " there should be many more such stones in existence, and
none exist in any other pueblo but Mayapan and Zilan."1

JRelacion. ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg, p. 52. In a note the Abbd states that the
above description recalls the monoliths of Copan and Quirigua.
652

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 217

Disagreeing with the venerable Bishop, I (ind in the above state
ments the most valuable indications of the former existence of two
centres of culture in Yucatan. There is a curious affinity between
the name Zilan (pronounced Dzilan) and Chilan given as "the
title of a priestly office which consisted of a juridistic astrology
and divination," by Landa. There may even be a connection
between zilan and zian = origin, commencement ; zihnal = origi
nal cTiid primitive, which may be worthy of consideration in associ
ation with the well-known statement, quoted by Dr. Brinton, that
'• the most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them
a migration from Tollan in Zu-iva — thence we all came forth to
gether, there was the common parent of our race ; thence came we
from amongst the Yagui men, whose god is Yolcuatl Quetzalcoatl."
Dr. Biin ton adds that k' this Tollan is certainly none other than the
abode of Quetzalcoatl named in an Aztec manuscript as ' Ziveua
Uitzcatl.' ' Vague as any conjecture must necessarily be, I cannot
but deem it of utmost importance that systematic excavations be
made, some day, at Zilan, for the purpose of bringing to light the
stela3 referred to by the native informants of Bishop Landa.

According to Brasseur de Bourbourg " Zilan, situated at about
20^ leagues from Merida belonged to the Cheles people.1 It is the
seaport of Izamal and contains the ruins of one of the greatest
pyramids or artificial mounds (omul) in Yucatan," a fact which
corroborates the view that it was an ancient important capital.
The northern coast of Yucatan is extremely remarkable for it is
divided from the Gulf of Mexico by a continuous strip of land
between which and the mainland there is a narrow channel of
water. There are two openings only in this zone of land which
afford a passage into the navigable channel. One of these open
ings is situated almost opposite to Zilan and is known as the Boca
de Zilan. At a short distance to the east there is a second such
"boca" opposite to the mouth of the Rio Lagartos, which is a

l\Ve are told that the Cheles Inhabited a province named Ah-bin-chel, and that
their capitals were Tikoh and Izamal (literally, Ah = they who are of, kin = sun,
chel=f?ort of bird and the ancient name of a sacerdotal lineage in Yucatan).
Thence the title Chelekat = holiness, highness, grandeur, given to the head of this
lineage (Brasseur de Bourbourg). Ix-chel = the woman-bird, was the high-priest
ess or medicine-woman and midwife. The Cheles, Tutul-xius and Cocomes were the
three most powerful tribes at the time of the Conquest. It is noteworthy that they all
had bird names and that the word chel, the totemic bird of the Cheles, so closely
resembes die = tree, that the combination of a ehtf or tree as a symbol of the tribe and
the chel-bird would have been suggested by the language.

C53

218 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

large estuary and the only river on the northern coast of Yuca
tan.1

Let us now transport ourselves, mentally, south of the penin
sula to Honduras and, leaving the coast, ascend the Motagua valley
to the ruins of Quirigua and Copan,2 which have impressed Mr.
Maudslay as being of great antiquity. Before examining such of
these monuments as seem to yield the testimony we are seeking,
let us again recall Landa's record that the Mayas erected stelae as
memorials of each 20-year period. To this statement should be
added, at full length, Cogolludo's record that " the Mayas em
ployed eras of 20 years and lesser periods of 4 years.3 The first
of these four years was assigned to the east and was named Cuch-
haab; the second, Hiix, to the west; the third, Cavac, to the south
and the fourth Muluc, to the north, and this served as a ' Domini
cal letter.' When five of these four-year periods had passed, which
form twenty years, they called it a Katun and placed one sculptured
stone over another sculptured stone and fixed them with lime and
sand [mortar] to the walls of their temples and houses of the
priests."4

The term katun is closely linked to the said employment of
memorial stones, for tun is the Maya for stone and ka seems to
stand for kal or kaal — 20. The word hun-kaal = 20, means lit
erally, " one complete count," or " a count which is closed," since
the verb kaal means to close, shut, or fasten something. Accord
ing to the above a katun literally means " the 20 (year) stone;"
but we know that, by extension, it designated the era itself as well
as war and battle. Thus we find the verb katun-tal = to fight.

Cogolludo continues: "In a town named Tixuala-tun, which
signifies l the place where they place one stone above another,'

1 According to Sefior Garcia Cubas, " this peninsula of Yucatan must have been
united at one time, to the island of <Juba, the determining cause of their separation
being the impetuous current of the Gulf of Mexico" (Atlas Metodico, Mexico, 1874,
p. 3-2).

2 For a general account of the ruins of Copan and for a plan on which the position
of the different structures, stelae, altars and prominent sculptures are given, I refer
to the Memoirs of the Peabody Museum vol. I, no. 1, containing a preliminary report,
of the Explorations by the Museum. Cambridge, 1896.

3 Historla do la Proviticia de Yucathan, by Friar Diego Lopez Cogolludo, Madrid,
1688.

4 It seems to me that this statement establishes once and for Ml the order in which
these sculptured glyphs are to be read. It is evident that in fastening them to the
walls the idea was that of building up the calculiform record by placing the stones
above ea<;h other, in the same manner that a stone wall would be raised. Accord
ingly, the earliest records would form the base and the last be at the top

654

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 239

they say that they kept their archive, containing records of all
events. ... In current speech katun signified era and when
a person wished to say he was sixty years of age, he used the
expression to have three eras of years or three stones. For sev
enty they said three and a half stones or four less one-half stone.
From this it may be seen that they were not too barbarous, for it
is said that [by this system] they were able to keep such exact
records that they not only certified an event but also the month
and day on which it took place."

By referring to Maya and Spanish dictionaries we gain supple
mentary valuable information about native memorial stones. We
find the name amaytun given as that of u a square stone on which
the ancient Indians used to carve the 20 years of the period ahau-
katun, because the four remaining years which completed the
epoch, were placed underneath, so as to form a sort of pedestal
which was called, for this reason, lath oc katun or chek oc katun.
By extension, painted representations [of the epoch] were also
named amaytun." The dictionary further informs us that amayte
was the name for the first twenty years of the ahau katun, which
were carved on the square stone and we see that amayte also
means "something square or with corners "and is formed of
amay =. corner.

Equipped with the foregoing knowledge of the sort of memorial
it was customary for the Mayas to erect, let us now see whether
the ruins of Copan furnish any monuments which would answer to
the description and purpose of 'k amay-tes and "ka-tuns." Re
ferring the reader to parts i-in of Mr. A. P. Maudslay's work
already cited, I draw special attention to the following stela? and
altars which are so admirably figured therein.

Stela F, which stands at the east side of the Great Plaza at Co-
pan and faces west, is in a particularly bad state of preservation.
It exhibits a standing figure on one sir •» whose head is surmounted
by an indescribable combination of a mask, a seated figure and
much elaborate feather-work. A noteworthy feature, which recurs
on other stehe in Copan and Quirigua, is an appendage which ap
pears like an artificial beard attached to the chin of the personage.
At the sides of the stela serpents' heads alternate with diminutive
grotesque figures. On the back, or enst side of the stela, two
cords are represented which appear to have been brought over from
the front and which are tied together so as to form five open loops,

Co 5

220 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

in each of which, as in a frame, there is a group consisting of four
calculiform glyphs. The cord, which is knotted together at the
base of the stela, appears to pass around it. It is impossible
not to recognize that this representation of twenty glyphs, as di
vided into five groups of four, exactly agrees with Cogolludo's
records that the Mayas employed 20-year and 4-year eras and that
when five of the 4-year periods had passed they called it a ka-tuo,
and made a carved memorial of it. As Lancia tells us that they
erected stelae to commemorate the 20-year period, the inference to
which the Copan Stela F leads us- is that it is a katun and that
the twenty glyphs carved on it are year-signs. Examination, how
ever, shows that, whereas the Maya Calendar had but four year-signs
which would naturally be bound to repeat themselves in each group
of four years, no two glyphs on the Stela F are alike. It is ob
vious, therefore, that the glyphs are not the four calendar year-
signs and reflection shows, indeed, that it would have been quite
superfluous to carve these repeatedly on a stela. As each year-
sign was identified with a cardinal point and an element and was
permanently associated with a particular color, the mere employ
ment of the latter would suffice to convey this association of ideas.
What is more, the relative positions of the four glyphs composing
each group would also indicate the four year-signs and thus the
sculptor of the stela would have been at liberty to record by the
shape of his glyphs any fact he chose to connect with each year
of the era. A curious linguistic fact must also be taken into con
sideration : The Maya name for the four year-signs was Ah-cuch-
haab and the title for a chief or ruler of a town was Ah-cuch-cab.
The mere presence on the stela, of the figure of the ruler, would
suffice to convey the certainty that the count of the four year-
signs was understood to be present. On Stela? F and M, each of
which displays twenty glyphs and one sculptured personage, the
latter is particularly characterized by being associated with head
dresses and emblems consisting of elaborate conventionalized
plumed serpents' heads. The inference naturally is that the ser
pent symbolism, which recurs in some form or other on every stela
effigy, expresses or conveys that the rank and title of the person
age were that of a Kukul-can, the high-priest ruler who imperson
ated the '• Divine Four," or of some lord — Ahau, who was also
"ruler of the four regions."

It must be recognized that a stone stela, on which is sculptured
650

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 221

the image of a lord and a count of 20, answers exactly to the
memorial stone named Ahau-ka-tun, literally, lord, 20 stone, and
it is easy to see how the period or era of twenty-four years should
come to be called by the name of the stone which commemorated
it, and each era to be differentiated by being designated by the
personal name of the ruler who held office during its course. The
result would be practically the same as the allusion to a particular
reign in a nation's history, with the seeming difference that all
ancient American rulers and their subordinates held fixed terms of
office, coinciding with the various periods of the calendar.

The inscriptions on the foregoing stela.1 are made of glyphs of
a uniform character. Other stelie at Copan display the interesting-
set of 6 -f- 1 = 7 signs which recur on so many Central American
monuments and strikingly coincide in number with the all-pervad
ing division into six parts plus the middle and synopsis of all.
Of this "• septenary set of signs," six are uniform in size and char
acter whilst the first is more elaborate and important in every re
spect andv as I shall set forth by a series of illustrations in another
publication, actually does symbolize the union of the Above and
Below. It is to Mr. Maudslay that we owe the recognition of the
existence of this septenary set of glyphs, which he announced as
follows to the Royal Geographical Society in 1886 :

4<A number of Central American inscriptions are headed by what
I shall call an initial scroll (the style of which is permanent through
out many variations) and begin with the same formula, usually
extending through six squares of hieroglyphic writing, the sixth
square, or sometimes the latter half of the sixth square, being a
human face, usually in profile, enclosed in a frame or cartouche"
(Proceedings, p. 583).

The septenary group occurs on Stelae A, B, C, E, I, P. It is
curious to find that the initial sign is sometimes, as on two sides
of Stela P, followed not by 6 glyphs only, but by 4 X 6 = 24
glyphs. On the east side of Stela P, it is succeeded by 22 glyphs
and a carved design which seems to indicate the beginning or end
of the count. On Stela I the initial is also followed by 4 X 6 =
24 glyphs, and on Stela A by 12 double (=. 24) glyphs on side
1, whilst side 2 displays 13 and side 3, 2 X 13 = 26. On Stela B
two sides exhibit 13 glyphs each and the back 2 -(- the initial. On
two sides of Stela C the initial is followed by 2 X 7 — 14 glyphs.
It cannot be denied that the foregoing stela; collectively yield counts
p. M. PA THUS i 4t> Of) 7

K K Y - N ( )T K OF A N C I K N T

of 4 X 5, 7, 13, 20 and 24, which undoubtedly coincide with the
well-known numerical organization and prove that this dominated
the people who erected them.

The certainty that the ancient inhabitants of Copan associated
the idea of a central ruler with quadruple power is afforded by a
remarkable bas-relief which Mr. Maudslay has kindly allowed me
to reproduce here (tig. 55), from a drawing made by Miss Annie
Hunter.1

This carved slab, the size of which is 5' by 4' 6", was found in
four pieces in the western court of the main structure of Copan
and according to Mr. Maudslay's opinion, "formed part of the
exterior ornament of temple 11 or the slope on which it stood."

It undoubtedly claims a
minute examination, as it
strikingly illustrates how
the native ideas, I have
been setting forth in the
preceding pages, were orig
inally suggested by the
observation of Polaris.
Seated cross-legged, and
resting on the centre of
the foliated swastika, is
the figure of a personage
whose titles are clearly
discernible.

He is designated as a
ruler, not only by his at
titude of repose, but by
the fact that he wears a breast ornament in the form of a face
or head (of the sun) and holds in his hand (/. e. governs) a vase
or bowl (see p. 72) . Those show him to be the chief or head of
all and the Cum-ahau, or lord of the sacred vase or bowl (see
p. 93). As the latter contains what appears to be a variant of
the glyph ik and the word ik signifies breath, air and wind, by
extension life, we realize that he is designated as the lord of
breath and life. The glyph which covers his face bears a native
cross-symbol and this, as well as the cruciform figure, the centre of

'See Hiolon'ia Centra1.! Americana, pt. I, Copan 'a' pi. !). Casts of this sculpture
and of two others nearly identical, from Copan, are in the Peabody Museum.

658

AMKRICAN CIVILIZATION'S. 223

which he occupies, conveys the idea, of quadruplicate power. The
double and bent arms of the cross-symbol strikingly resemble the
conventionalized puffs of breath or air which are so frequently de
picted in Mexican Codices, as issuing from the mouths of speakers.
Almost identical representations of curved puffs are figured as
issuing from open serpents' jaws in a bas relief at Palenque, of
which more anon.

Mr. Maudslay has pointed out that on stela1 from Copan and
.Quirigua a profusion of analogous curved signs occurs also in
connection with serpents' heads. A special feature of the curved
puffs of breath on the Copan " swastika," as it has been named,
are small seed-like balls which are distributed in detached groups
of threes along their inner and outer edges, and are usually accom
panied by what resembles the small calyx of a flower, making
four small objects in all. These balls, which also recur in the Palen
que symbol, forcibly recall a passage of the ZuFii creation myth re
counted by Mr. Gushing.

It relates that, at a certain stage of the creation, ' the most per
fect of all priests and fathers named Yauauluha . . . brought
up from the underworld, the water of the inner ocean and the
seeds of life production" . . . Subsequently, on a feathered
staff he carried, " appeared 4 round things, seeds of moving be
ings, mere eggs they were; two blue like the sky and two red like
the flesh of the earth-mother."

I cannot but think that these words from a purely native source
explain the Copan sculpture more correctly than any inference
that could be made, and authorize the explanation that the central
figure represents the "four times lord," or "lord of the four
winds," titles which were applied in Mexico to Quetzalcoatl and
Xiuhtecuhtli. At the same time the bas-relief teaches us that
"the four winds " had a deeper meaning than has been realized,
for it represents life-giving breath carrying with it the seeds of
the four vital elements, emanating from the central lord of life,
spreading to the four quarters and dividing itself so as to dissem
inate vitality throughout the universe. The title Kukulcan =
the Divine Four, also serpent, proves to be even more express
ive of this conception of a central divinity than the Mexican Di
vine Twin, or serpent. I am therefore inclined to consider that it
originated with a May a -speaking people, to whom, more graphi
cally than to any one else, this bas-relief would have served, as a

224 KKY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

joint image of the star-god, the heart of heaven, named Hura-
kan ; of the terrestrial lord Ah-cuch-cab, the heart or life of the
State ; of the State, with its hun-kaal or one count of twenty sub
divisions of people and its quadruple head and body and, finally,
of the native cosmology.

The Copan swastika enables us to come to another interesting
conclusion. It is a refined representation of the set of thoughts
suggested by Polaris, the idea of a stable centre being graphically
rendered. Movement in four directions is also symbolized. As,
in the latitude of Copan, Ursa Minor is the only circumpolar con
stellation which could have been observed in four opposite posi
tions, it is obvious that Ursa Minor with Polaris must have consti
tuted the Maya Celestial Heart or Life = cuxabal. The following
points remain to be discussed in connection with the Copan swastika.

1. To be complete and in keeping with native modes of repre
sentation it must have originally been painted with the symbolical
colors of the Four Quarters.

2. It is on a wooden club from Brazil or Guiana that, strange
to say, 1 find a cross symbol with bifurcated branches, which most
closely resembles the Copan type. Directing the readers to the
illustration of this club as fig. 8, pi. xv, in Dr. Stolpe's work
already cited, I would ask them to examine also his fig. 7, with a de
sign expressing dual and quadruple divisions ; fig. 96, with circles
containing cross lines ; 9a, with what resembles somewhat a Maltese
cross but also conveys duality ; fig. 116 with a cross in a scalloped
circle and a curious disc between four signs, with a band of alter
nate black and white squares and its reverse lla, with triangles, to
which I shall revert ; and figs. lOc and fZ, each with a mound from
which a tree is growing. Though tempted to refer to many other
symbols J shall limit myself to pointing out that his fig. 1, pi. xiv,
exhibits n group of five circles in a circle which strikingly recall
the Mexican examples and the Maya ho = 5. As each of the
foregoing symbols is intelligible and belongs to a group of ideas
which I have shown to have been general throughout America, but
to have necessarily originated in the northern hemisphere, it seems
pretty clear that they must have gradually found their way to
Brazil and Guiana from the north by means of coast navigation
and traffic.

3. Concerning the bowl in the hand of the figure occupying the
GGO

AMKRICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 225

middle of the swastika a few remarks should be added to those
already given on pp. 72 and 5)3.

Formed of clay the bowl was an expressive symbol of the earth.
Placed in elevated positions on the terraces of the temples, and
filled by the first annual showers which fell upon the parched
earth, the bowl of celestial water naturally became invested with
peculiar sanctity, and was gradually regarded as containing partic
ular life-giving qualities. One use to which bowls full of water
were put, in ancient Mexico, seems to explain further the ideas
associated with them. It is well known that bowls of water were
used at night for divination purposes, just as were black obsidian
mirrors. This seems to prove that the latter were a subsequent
invention which was adopted because it permanently afforded a
surface for purposes of reflection.

In the native Maya chronicles the reflection of a star upon the
trembling and moving surface of the water, is given as the image of
the Creator and Former, the Heart of Heaven, and it was believed
that the divine essence of life was thus conveyed to earth by light
shining on and into the waters. It is well known that it was cus
tomary for the priests of the Great Temple of Mexico to bathe at
midnight after fasting, in a sacred pool so deep that the water
appeared to be black. This artificially-produced peculiarity would
have rendered its surface particularly useful for the observation
and registration of the movements of stars by their reflections.

Thomas Gage quaintly tells us, moreover, that at the consecra
tion of a certain idol " made of all kinds of seeds that grow in the
country ... a certain vessell of water was blessed with many
words and ceremonies, and that water was preserved very relig
iously at the foot of the Altar for to consecrate the King when he
was crowned and also to blesse any Captain Generall, when he
should be elected for the Warres, with only giving him a draught of
that water" (op. cit., p. 53). It is well known that infants also
underwent a form of baptism.

The preceding and other evidence, which is scarcely required,
enables us to realize the full significance which the symbol of a
bowl surmounted by the glyph ik = life, breath, soul, was intended
to express and convey.

The collection of rain-water in vessels, exposed so as to receive
the reflection of the one immovable star-god, was doubtlessly em
ployed as a test of the stability of the Middle of the Earth by

226 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

many generations of priest-astronomers. The sanctity attached
to this water, as having absorbed the divine essence of light and
the attribution of life-giving properties to it, was but the natural
sequence of such star-observation. As the title u the lord of the
vase or bowl " = Cum-ahau, indicates, the supreme priest of Heaven
alone seems to have attended to all rites concerning the sacred
bowl and the distribution of its celestial life-giving contents. The
symbolical decoration of many native bowls will be found to cor
roborate this view of their employment and of the virtue attrib
uted to their contents.

By this time I trust that my readers will realize with me that,
at Copan, the native set of ideas had long taken deep root and
flourished. We have seen that the identical numerical divisions of
time and tribes and the same symbolism prevailed as have been
traced in Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Yucatan, Zuni, etc. The
following monuments will still further establish this kinship of
thought. Copan contains two stone slabs which answer to the de
scription of an amay-tun, inasmuch as they are square and appear
to be memorial stones. Let us see whether some clue to their pur
pose can be obtained from the carvings upon them.

On each of the four sides of altar K four personages are carved,
all seeming to be of equal rank. Of these 4X4=16 chieftains,
eight wear a breast ornament in the form of a double serpent,
whilst the remaining eight wear a somewhat plainer kind. On
the west side the two central figures face eacli other and two di
minutive glyphs are carved in the space between them. The most
striking feature about the representation of these personages is,
that each of them is seated, cross-legged, on a different composite
glyph ; some of these exhibit animal forms. This is a fact of ut
most importance, for it definitely connects distinct personalities,
obviously chieftains with composite glyphs, some composite parts
of which are obviously totemic. On the upper surface of this
monolith there are 6X6 = 36 single glyphs, which yield 9 groups
of 4. If these 9 X 4 be added to the 4X4 glyphs on which the
chieftains are respectively seated, we obtain 13 groups of 4, equiv
alent to 52. It is superfluous to repeat that there are fifty-two
years in the Mexican cycle and that just as this square altar
has 16 figures carved around it, the great monolithic Stone of
Tizoc in the City of Mexico has 16 groups. In the latter case
each group is accompanied by the name of a tribe and its capital.
662

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 22 (

It looks very much as though the glyphs on which the chieftains
on Altar K are seated also express tribal names.

A careful study of the other square monolith at Copan, known
as the Alligator altar, will enable us to form a better estimate of
the probable meaning of glyphs, employed as seats by chieftains.
The Alligator altar takes its name from the sculptured animal
which is stretched over its upper surface. Human figures are rep
resented as connected with the different parts of the animal's body,
in a way which forcibly recalls Mr. Cushing's explanation of how
the various members of a tribe were associated with a part only
of their totemic animal and bore the name of this part as their
title of honor, according to a strict order of precedence.

According to Mr. Maudslay's description : " Upon the upper
surface of the monument are two apparently human figures seated
upon the arms of the alligator. Both figures are much weather worn ;
each has what appears to be a glyph in its hand, which is out
stretched toward the alligator's head. Between the alligator's arms
and legs four human figures are seated in similar positions, two on
each side of the body. These figures have large mask head
dresses and carry offerings in their hands. There are two figures
on the north side of the monument, one on either side of the tail
of the alligator ; each is seated on a glyph. The figures are human,
but in place of a human head each figure is surmounted by a
glyph. Each figure holds a glyph with the numeral ten attached
to it in its outstretched hand.1'

Since the above partial description of the altar was written, Mr.
Maudslay has found that one of the above glyphs is •' Mol " and
the other "Zip," and has identified the glyph used as a head for
each figure as the day-sign Cabal. This fact is of particular in
terest as the meaning of this sign seems to be connected with
Caban =. the Below, and the two figures with Cabal heads arc
sculptured at each side of the alligator's tail which is the part of
least honor, not only according to Zuui etiquette, but also according
to Mexican ideas, the word for tail being employed, metaphorically,
for vassals.

To this description I would add that a careful study of the cast
of this monument in the South Kensington Museum, and of the
illustrations in Mr. Maudslay's work reveals that, of the four fig
ures on the west side, one only has a human head, whilst two have
human bodies with animal heads and one a semi-human face and

228 KKY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the body of a bird. Of the four figures on the east side, the first
represents a man seated on a glyph, the second a human body with
an animal head and the third and fourth semi-animal, bird and
human figures. Amongst the recognizable animal forms repre
sented, we distinguish an ocelot, an unmistakable alligator's head
and the head of a monster with huge jaw and serrated teeth which
strongly resembles the Mexican sign Cipactli, a nondescript u ma
rine monster." One detail is worthy of special notice : the left
hand of one of the figures on the east side terminates in a ser
pent's head, in a fashion recalling that of the Santa Lucia bas-re
liefs.

The following resume will make the distribution of the figures
and glyphs on the altar quite clear. Top : outstretched alligator
body, whose legs and claws are sculptured over the corners of the
altar. On each shoulder 1 figure with glyph = 2. On each knee
2 figures = 4, making a total of 6 figures on the top. On east
and west sides respectively, 4 figures ; on north side 2 figures,
on the south side 4 figures on composite glyphs =14. The total
number of figures on top and sides is 20, each of which is inti
mately associated with a glyph. Under the snout of the alligator,
on the south side, there are 2X4 = 8 gtyphs.

When carefully analyzed we ultimately find that the surface of the
altar exhibits in the first case two chieftains of equal rank, but re
spectively seated on the right and left forelegs of the tribal totem.
To my idea this demonstrates that the dual rulership, such as ex
isted elsewhere, prevailed at Copan, and that two lords of the alli
gator tribe were entitled the right and left forelegs or " arms" of
the animal totem. It should be noted here that the Maya name
for alligator is chiuan or ain. The dictionaries contain also the
following names for the same or allied species: " Sea-lizard, alli
gator (?), ixbaan ; lizard in general = ix-mech, or mech, ix-be-
bech, ixzeluoh and ix-tulub. Obviously occupying positions of less
honor there are 2 X 2 = 4 chiefs of equal rank but seated, respect
ively, on the right and left hind legs of the totem. These again
are evidently equivalent to the four sub-rulers of Mexico and
Yucatan, the Maya Bacabs or Chacs.

Lastly, the twenty different figures, connected with particular
glyphs, are equivalent to the division of the tribe into as many
portions, minus the head. The eight glyphs associated with this
added to the twelve glyph-figures, complete the numeric organiza-
664

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 229

lion into twenty. From this monument, the sides of which were
probably painted, originally, in four colors, it would seem that the
alligator clan, ruled by two chiefs and four lesser rulers, was organ
ized into twelve divisions of people and eight classes of another
kind. A circular tablet at Quirigua, which I shall describe further
on, exhibits a subdivision into 2X6 = 12-f-«ll>H-3 — 20.

It is not necessary to emphasize how remarkably the Copan altar
conforms to the Zuiii method of clan-organization. It suffices for
my present purpose merely to establish the community of thought
which existed throughout, but which found its highest artistic ex
pression and development in Central America.

There are several other smaller carved monoliths, one of which
usually lies in front of a stela. For this reason they have been pop
ularly named " altars," just as the stela? have been called u idols."
The majority of these "altars" contradict this appellation by
their utterly unsuitable shapes and profuse carvings on their up
per, often irregular, rounded surfaces. Some of these monoliths
consist of a monstrous head, the shape of which is almost lost under
an indescribable mass of ornamentation. In some cases, however,
they recall the semblance of the large glyphs on which chieftains
are represented as seated on the carved sides of the square mono
liths just described. So strongly do some of these resemble certain
forms, that I venture to express my belief that, on ceremonial oc
casions, these carved heads may have served as the seats or stools
of honor for chieftains of the rank of those portrayed on the bas-
reliefs. The Maya word tern, the plural form for which is tetem,
seems to be applicable to such totemistic carved stones. It is
translated as stone altar, seat or bench (cf. Nahuatl word te-tl =
stone). Other minor monoliths are carved with glyphs. "Altar
G," illustrated in Mr. Maudslay's work, exhibits four glyphs only —
an interesting number, replete with significance to the native mind.

The number 24 occurs on Altar R on which the glyphs are dis
posed as 2 X 4 = 8-}- 2 X 8 = 24. The number 24 recurs on the
top of Altar U, where the glyphs are disposed in 3 rows of 8 each.
At the same time the back of this altar exhibits 5 X 10 = 50 and
its sides 2X2=4 glyphs, which may possibly constitute separate
records. In the majority of foregoing cases the glyphs are single
and comparatively simple. On Altar S, however, we have double
and quadruple glyphs, the latter obviously being a highly developed
cursive method of recording facts, rendered possible by the minute

G65

230 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

classification of all things in the State into definite divisions with
fixed relationships to each other.

Having lingered so long in Copan we can but glance at Quirigna
and note its most remarkable features. This ruined city lies on
Motagua river, 1,800 feet below and at about a distance of twenty-
five to thirty miles from Copan. It is now subjected to almost
annual inundations from the river and its situation in marshy sur
roundings renders it extremely unhealthy. It may have been partly
on this account that the neighboring capital of Copan was founded
in an elevated and salubrious position.

An interesting fact has been pointed out to me by Mr. Mauds-
la}-, namely, that the ground plan of both groups of ruins is al
most exactly the same, Copan being only somewhat the larger of
the two. This identity proves that the same distinct scheme of
orientation was carried out in both places and that importance was
undoubtedly attached to the relative positions of the pyramid-tem
ples, courts and buildings.1 A proof that two distinct castes of
rulers existed and were respectively associated with the northern
and southern regions 'of the capital is furnished by a circumstance
communicated to me by Mr. Maudslay. In Copan, as well as at
Quirigua, some of the individuals sculptured on the stela? are
beardless, whilst others have beards which seem to be sometimes

1 It is my intention to reproduce these plans of Copan and Quirigua and of other
ancient American capitals in the publication I have undertaken to make in co-editor
ship with Mr. E. W. Dahlgren of Stockholm, of the beautiful map of the City of
Mexico and its surroundings, painted by Alonzo de la Cruz, the cosmographer of
Philip II of Spain. Mr. Dahlgren published an interesting account of this map,
which is preserved in the library of the university at L'psala, in 1889, with its un-
colored reproduction on a reduced scale. In his monumental work on ancient cartog
raphy, Baron Nordenskjold also published an uueolored production of this map and,
with Dr. Bovallius, exhibited a beautiful facsimile of this precious document, at the
Historical Exposition in Madrid, in October, 18,)2. During the previous summer ;it
Stockholm,! had personally superintended the painting of a perfect facsimile copy of
the map which 1 exhibited in the Anthropological Building of the World's Colum
bian Exposition in 1893. The original map was exhibited in Stockholm during the
meeting of the Congress of Americanists at Stockholm in 1894, and I suggested that it
ought to be published in exact facsimile and in colors, particularly on account of the
many hieroglyphic names of localities it exhibits. It was thereupon agreed by Mr.
Dahlgren and myself that we should jointly publish the map with an accompanying
text in English, my share of the work being principally the decipherment of the hiero
glyphs of localities, the classification of the tribes inhabiting them, as well as the pres
entation of all historical facts connected with them that I could obtain from the
native and early Spanish chronicles. With characteristic, liberality the Due de Loubat
most kindly supported the proposed publication by subscribing to twenty copies of it
in advance and depositing the payment for these at the Academy of Sciences. The
reproduction of tin; map has been facilitated by this generous action and I take great
pleasure in expressing here our grateful appreciation to the Due, de Loubat, who

666

AMKRICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 231

artificial. These stela? usually stood at the sides of the great courts,
and at the bases of the pyramid-temples. Mr. Maudslay has ob
served that in both places, all of the bearded effigies are situated
to the north of the beardless ones. The first, for instance, occupy
the northern and the second the southern side of a court ; their
respective positions being clearly intentional since it recurs in both
cases. This circumstance furnishes additional proof that, in these
capitals as elsewhere, the same great primary division into the
Above and Below prevailed and shows that the representative
rulers of these two castes respectively wore beards or none.

The beard, as an insignia of rank, occurs in several Mexican
MSS. and careful observation shows that it is most frequently
represented as worn by a high-priest, usually painted black and
sometimes wearing the skin of an ocelot. It is found associated
with advanced age and with red, the color of the north, a fact
which coincides with the position assigned to bearded effigies at
Copan and Quirigua. In Mexican Codices the culture hero, Quet-
zalcoatl, is figured with a beard, and tradition records that this was
his distinctive feature. Images of Quetzalcoatl — the air-god, rep
resent him with a beard, and the calendar-sign Ehecatl — wind, is
composed of an elongated mouth and chin to which a beard is
attached.

Several of the monuments at Quirigua are the largest of the
kind which have been found on the American continent. Stela?
K and F are twenty-two and twenty-five feet high respectively,
and both exhibit two human effigies standing back to back. In

has been patiently awaiting the achievement ul our undertaking. Both Mr. Dahlgren
and I have been prevented 1'roni completing this up to the present, }>y work planned
previously to the publication of the map. The present publication will prove, how
ever, that the social organixation of the Mexicans has been the object of my pains
taking study and that, until I had satisfactorily set forth the fundamental principles
which influenced not only the distribution of the population, but the ground-plan of
the capital itself, any text I could publish with the map would be incomplete. As
matters now stand, I propose to treat of the City of Mexico as a type of an ancient
American sacred city, to compare its g-ound plan with those of other native capitals
and to trace, as far as possible, the localization of the various tribes and classes of
the ancient population, so that we can form an adequate idea of the topography and
machinery of the great state known as the Empire of Montezuma. I hope ami ex
pect to complete this publication in a reasonable period of time but dare not define
its limits, as all scientific research demands more time and strength than can be de
termined upon in advance. In conclusion I would state that, at the Congress of Amer
icanists which took place at the city of Mexico in 1S!)5, the distinguished Mexican
cartographer, Senor Garcia Cubas, whose splendid maps of Mexico are well known,
made an interesting communication on this map, of which he had seen a copy.

667

232 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

point of fact, with a few exceptions, amongst which are female
effigies, the majority of stelae at Quirigua are double, namely, A, C,
D, E, F, K, in Mr. Maudslay's work, part xi. I cannot but regard
this as a proof that in a peaceful, flourishing and long-established
state, the dual form of government maintained itself successfully
for an extended period of time. On Stela E is one of the most
remarkable ancient American portrait-statues that has yet been
discovered. It portrays a man with noble and strongly marked
features, an aquiline nose and a narrow chin beard, like a goatee.

The Maya dictionaries supply us With the clue to the meaning
attached to the beard in pictorial art. The word for beard is meex
and for " bearded man," ah-meex, or ah-rneexnal, if the beard
was long. On the other hand, ah-mek-tancal is the Maya name for
" governor and ruler of people or of a town," and ah-mektanpixan
means high priest. The first two syllables of these titles, being
identical with the word for a u bearded man," seem to explain
the reason for the association of rank with a beard, and vice versa.
Added to preceding data it aids in forming the conclusion that
the bearded personages on the stelae were u high-priests or rulers of
people and of towns," that the beard or goatee was the mark of
supreme rank and that artificial ones were sometimes worn.

The beardless effigies, on the other hand, obviously represent
individuals belonging to a different caste ; and the fact that stelae
exist at Copan and Quirigua on which two figures are carved, back
to back, proves that the assignment of the effigies of the two types
to separate sides of the courts was preceded by a time when a
closer unity prevailed between the dual rulers. The existence of
stelae with female figures proves that here, as well as in Mexico
and Peru, there had been a period when " the Below and the cult of
the Earth-mother were presided over by a woman."

On each side of the great Stela F is carved the initial followed
by 6 X 6 = 36 glyphs, which fact seems to indicate that six glyphs
pertained to each of the six regions and recorded facts relating
thereunto. On the sides of Stela F, each initial is followed by
34 glyphs only, the count being shorter than that of Stela E
by 2 X 2 = 4. One side of Stela C exhibits the initial followed by
2 X 13 glyphs grouped in parallel lines, then a horizontal band
with 4 glyphs ; the other side the initial followed by 4 X 6 = 24
and a group of 4 glyphs. Stela D is particularly remarkable on
account of the six squares of pictorial glyphs which follow the
G68

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 233

" Initial" which, in this case, exhibits the head and body of a
jaguar in its centre. I refer to Mr. Maudslay's interesting con
clusion that these pictorial glyphs preceded, in date, the more cur
sive method of representing the initial series. In consequence of
this jaguar initial, Stela A becomes particularly noticeable, be
cause one of the personages upon it has a beard, whilst the other
is masked as an ocelot or jaguar.

A vivid sense of the actuality of the bond that existed between
the ancient dwellers at Copau and Quirigua, their totemic animals
and symbolic coloring, is obtained on reading Mr. Maudslay's fol
lowing description of the excavation of mound 4 at Copan (Re
port Proceedings Geographical Society, 1886, p. 578) . . . The
excavation was then continued . . . when more traces of
[human] bones were found mixed with red powder and sand . . .
Continuing the excavation ... a skeleton of a jaguar was
found lying under a layer of charcoal . . . the teeth and part
of the skeleton had been painted red. At about 100 yards to the
south of this mound I shortly afterwards opened another .
mound . . . and found a few small fragments of human
bones, two small stone axes and portions of another jaguar's
skeleton and some dog's teeth, showing that the interment of ani
mals was not a matter of chance."

If we add this to the accumulation of evidence I have presented,
showing that in Mexico and Yucatan the ocelot was associated
with the north, the color red, the underworld, the nocturnal cult
and with bearded priests, we must admit that there is hope that,
some day, we may be as familiar with the life and customs of the
ancient Americans as we are now with those of the ancient Egyp
tians, Greeks and Romans.

Strange animal efiigies in stone have been found at Quirigua :
one (B) somewhat resembles a dragon and exhibits complex glyphs ;
another (G) has been named an armadillo and has 2 X 8 = 16
glyphs carved on its lower and 2 X 20 =40 on its upper sides.

A circular slab deserves special mention : in its centre is a
seated figure. Forming a band around the edge, to the right of
the figure are 6 glyphs and 6 others are to his left = 12 in all.
Above him to his left are 5 and to his left are 3 glyphs. This
peculiar distribution of 20 glyphs is of peculiar interest.

The crowning glory of Quirigua, however, is the gigantic block
of slone, completely covered with intricate carvings and glyphs,

G69

234 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

which is known as the " Great Turtle," and of which splendid
casts, made from Mr. Maudslay's moulds, are now exhibited in
the South Kensington Museum, London, and in the American Mu
seum of Natural History, New York. Of the many features of
this remarkable monument, which can be studied in Mr. Maudslay's
forthcoming part xi of the Biologia Centrali- Americana, the seated
figure, occupying a prominent place and obviously representing the
central ruler, deserves special mention. In his right hand he holds
a peculiar sceptre similar to that held by the personage on Stela E.
His left hand is concealed under a carved face, a detail which re
calls the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs.

Palenque and its group of sister cities now claim our notice. Of
the latter Men-die particularly arrests our attention on account of
its name, the second part of which means tree and by extension,
tribe. The word men is of particular interest, for it is not only the
name of a dog in the Maya Calendar but signifies precisely the
same as the Mexican word toltecati, namely, master-builder, arti
ficer or artisan, an adept in manufacture. The habitual form of
employing the word would be all-men, meaning he who is a master
builder, etc. ; while rnen-ah or men-yah signifies work or production
of manual labor. The first part of the Nahtiatl word aman-teca,
signifying artisan, artificer, seems to be a corrupt rendering of
the Maya ah-men. That Men-che, which is also known as Loril-
lard City, was a centre of the highest development of native-
sculpture and art seems proven by the truly admirable and ex
quisitely fine workmanship of the bas-reliefs obtained there by
Mr. Maudslay, and now exhibited at the British Museum. In exe
cution and finish they undoubtedly surpass any specimens of an
cient American art I have ever seen.

A search for the possible derivation of the word men lends to
mchen, the name for " sons or nephews in the male line," mehen-
ob, the descendants, mehen-tzilaan = genealogy and parentage (a
word which sheds some light on the meaning of the ancient capital
Tzilan in Yucatan). Mehen is also employed as meaning some
thing little, small or minute.

From the above data it may be inferred that Men-che may have
originally signified '• the tree or tribe of the sons or nephews in
the male line," and that these people may have so identified them
selves with the arts of building and working in precious metals and
stone, etc., that their title was used as a designation for these in-
070

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 235

dustrics. Tt is certainly remarkable that, situated at an easy dis
tance on the same river Usumacinto, there is the great ruined city
of Palenque1 (pronounced by the natives Pa-lem-ke) which seems
also to have originally terminated in die = tree or tribe and to be
derived from palil, pal or palal = vassal, servant, subject, also
small child. Let us see how far the monuments of Palenque
justify and support this translation of its name.

Referring the reader to Mr. Maudslay's Biologia, and to Mr.
Holmes' Archa-ological Studies, Pt. n, and other well-known works
on the ruins of Palenque, I shall confine myself to a cursory ex
amination of the four principal isolated pyramid- temples, known,
respectively, as the temples of the Inscriptions, of the Sun, of
the Cross and of the Cross Xo. 2. Although the orientation of
these edifices is not accurate they may be roughly said to face the
cardinal points as follows : —

The temple "of the Inscriptions" faces the north, that "of
the Sun " the east, whilst the temple " of the Cross " faces the
south and that " of Cross 2," the west. Dr. Briuton has already
shown that the well-known symbol on the famous " Tablet of the
Cross " is not a cross, but the conventional symbol for " tree " of
the type I have illustrated in the preceding fig. 53. As Cross
No. 2 unquestionably belongs to the same category, it results that
these two temples would be more correctly designated as "of the
Tree " and that they furnish us with an interesting parallel of the
Peruvian quisuar can-cha, or " place of the tree," where the Inca
erected two trees which typified his father and mother and were
" as the root and stems of the Incas." The Paleuque " trees, "
moreover, closely resemble those on the Mexican Fejervary chart
(fig. 52) inasmuch as, in each case, the tree is surmounted by a
bird and is flanked by two human figures.

It has already been shown in the preceding pages that in ancient
America the tree was generally employed as a symbol for tribe and
that the Maya word for tree = che occurs as an affix signifying
tribe or people not only in Qui-che, Man-che (the latter a tribe in
habiting the region of Menche and Palenque) etc., but also in the
names of tribes inhabiting the southern regions of North America.

1 It has been surmised that the name Palenque is of Spanish origin and means " a
palisade ;" but it .seems far more likely to lie the approximate rendering of the sound
of the old native word by a Spanish word, in the same way that the Nahuatl guauh-
nahuac became the Spani.-h Cuerna vaca, literally cou'.- horn.

f,7i

236 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Assuming, therefore, upon convincing and substantial evidence
which will be further corroborated, that the " Tablet of the Cross "
represents a tree, the symbol of tribal life, the next step is to in
terpret the bird perched upon it and generally acknowledged to be
a quetzal (pronounced kay-tzal) as the totem of the tribe, which
also probably expresses its name. The tree is represented as
associated with serpent symbolism and as growing from a vase —
ho-och placed on a monstrous head = ho-ol, the idea conveyed
being that it flourished in the centre or middle, while the head
signifies, as has been shown, the capital and also the chief. On
the vase is carved a symbol to which I draw special attention, as
it recurs on the right hand end of the carved band below the tree,
is met with in Maya calculiform glyphs and is also frequently em
ployed in ancient Mexico. It represents the corolla of a four-pet-
alled flower which obviously symbolized the Four-in-One, which
permeated the native civilizations.

The word for " flower " being nic in Maya and xochitl (pro
nounced hoochitl) inNahuatl, it must be admitted that the symbol
of a vase with a flower seems to afford an instance of a bilingual
rebus, as the Maya hooch is identical in sound to the Nahuatl
xoch-itl. Even without this, however, the meaning of the tree and
serpent, the bird, the vase, the quadripartite flower, and the head,
would have been generally and equally intelligible to native tribes,
being familiar symbols constantly employed in metaphorical speech.

Mr. Maudslay has pointed out and illustrated in his work
(Biologia, pi. 92, pt. x) that the side branches of the ;' cross"
simulate bearded serpents' heads, whilst their recurved upper
jaws are covered with what resemble buds of flowers, seeds or
beads. The Palenque " cross " is indeed characterized by being
profusely decorated with " bead or seed-like ornaments and appen
dages " some of which resemble beads or seeds, figured in some
instances, like those on the Copan swastika, the meaning of which
seems supplied by the previously cited Zuni text. It does not
appear to be a mere matter of chance that the following Maya
words, culled from the dictionaries, are so closely connected :
yax-che = a sort of ceiba tree, the emblem of celestial life of
the Mayas ; yax-chumil and yax-pa-ibe =: adjectives primitive,
original ; adverb firstly, at the beginning ; yaxil, verb = to make
something new, to commence, begin ; yaxil-tun = bead or pearl ;
yax-mehen-tzil = eldest son.

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 237

According to this incontrovertible evidence we find that the
sacred tree of life of the Mayas was designated by the word yax,
signifying first, original, new, etc. ; that the same root enters into
the composition of the word for eldest son and finally for " bead."
The latter curious agreement is accentuated by the well-known
fact that the Mexicans employed in metaphorical speech the word
cuzcatl = bead made of some precious stone, to designate
''father, mother, lord, captain, governor; those who are like a
sheltering tree to the people" (Olmos, cap. vin). A term of par
ticular endearment for a son was *' gold-bead" (teocuitla-cuzcatl).
Olmos moreover records no less than eight metaphorical designa
tions for a u Tree, or first father, origin of generation, lord or
governor," and appellations for twenty-nine " Relatives who issue
from one stem or trunk."

Collectively, the evidence set forth in the preceding pages iden
tifies the image on the famous fct Tablet of the Cross," as a sym
bolical representation of the "Tree of Life of the Eldest Sons,"
chiefs or nobility of a tribe, whose totemic bird was the quetzal.1
Before completing the description of this tablet, the analogous
representation of a tree on the " Temple of the Cross 2" should be
examined. This is generally known as the foliated Cross and like
its counterpart it issues from a vase with a quadriform emblem,
and a monstrous head. Its branches are composed of conven
tionalized maize plants on which human heads and faces occupy the
places of the corn-cobs whilst their hanging hair simulates the
tassels of the ripe corn. The maize-leaves are decorated with
groups of seed- like beads amongst which distinct representations of
maize seeds are discernible. These form, indeed, the leading motif
of the seed decorations and indicate that the '• appendages" to the
groups of seed-like beads on the Copaii swastika were but conven
tionalized maize-seeds. The branches of the maize-tree are sur
mounted by a conventionally ornamented head from which hangs
a necklace of beads with a medallion consisting of a face sur
rounded by a beaded frame. Above the head the totemic quetzal
bird is repeated under almost precisely the same form but in a

1 Brasseurde Bourbourg'sMaya Vocabulary contains an interesting instance of a
native tribe or lineage bearing the name of a bird: " Chel : name of a kind of bird;
ancient name of a great sacerdotal family reigning at Tecoh (near Izamal, Yucatan).
Thence the title ' Chelekat,' which meant holy, exalted, great, and was applied to
the head of this family."

P. M. PAPERS I 43 G73

238 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

reversed position. It is interesting to note that the Maya name
for maize is ixim, which added to the che = tree, yields ixim-che,
a word which actually occurs as the local name of the ancient capi
tal of Guatemala, named " Iximche-tecpan." To this curious fact
should be also added that " ix " is the prefix employed to designate
the feminine gender and that Ix-chel is "the name of the Maya
goddess of medicine and of child-birth."

An extremely interesting composite symbol is carved under the
feet of the personage standing next to the u maize- tree," to the
right of the spectator. It consists of .the realistically carved large
convolute sea- shell such as constituted the Mexican symbol of
parturition. An almost grotesque human figure is represented as
issuing from it and holding in its hand a maize plant which bends
upwards and curves over the shell. Its leaves are drawn with
maize-seeds on and amongst them, in the same conventional way
that has been noticed on the central tree, and human heads again
simulate the corn-cob. An acquaintance with Mexican and ZuSi
symbolism enables us to grasp the significance of this composite
symbol which figuratively expresses the common birth and growth
of the substance of plant and human life. The personage who
stands over this symbol, facing the tree and the tail of the bird
which surmounts it, holds a curiously decorated emblem in his
hand, of which more anon. A small twig bearing three terminal
leaves issues from his head. Behind him are 4 perpendicular columns
with 17 glyphs in each; whilst a detached series, consisting of 13
smaller glyphs, is carved in front and above him.

At the opposite side of the tree, facing the almost unrecogniz
able head of the bird, a personage stands on an elaborately carved
monstrous head, covered with a maize-plant. He is wearing a neck
lace and medallion like that on the tree itself. His head is sur
mounted by a high cap bearing a conventionalized flower-bud. A
belt in the form of a serpent with open jaws, encircles his waist
and he is holding aloft in his hands, a miniature, human, seated
figure with folded arms, a bead necklace and an indescribable
head-dress and masked face. His attitude indicates that, by
offering this figure, he is performing some rite. On the other
hand, a conventionalized sign for water seems to be issuing from
the bird's head and descending upon the figure whilst puffs of
breath and seeds issuing from its beak seem to be directed towards
the tiny effigy of a human being.
67-i

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 239

Reverting now to the •' Tablet of the Cross I," we find precisely
analogous figures at its sides, only in reversed positions. To the
right of the spectator stands the priest with a tall hat surmounted
by the flower-bud, somewhat resembling a fleur-de-lis. The small
human figure he is offering is recumbent and is being held out so
as to come in contact with the pendant issuing from the bird's
head.

The figure on the opposite side, with the head-dress and twig
with three leaves, is facing the central tree and holding a staff
which, in this case although combined with other emblems, clearly
appears to represent a young maize plant, with its roots below,
and growing shoot with leaves above. As on the other tablets
there are columns of glyphs behind each figure, whilst the per
sonage holding the maize-plant is associated with a detached group,
in two portions, consisting of 10 +4 glyphs, and is standing on
a large glyph associated with a numeral.

Having thus cursorily brought out some special points observ
able on both " Cross Tablets," let us now glance at the tablet in
the " Temple of the Sun." On this we again find columns of
glyphs and a personage at each side of a central figure. The
same peculiarities and differences of costume are observable here
as on the preceding tablets ; but each personage holds a small,
grotesque human figure with a long nose, and each stands on the
back of a human being, that to the left of the spectator especially
appearing to be a conquered enemy.1

Two over-burdened-looking seated figures, one of which is clothed
in a spotted ocelot's skin, occupy the centre and support, on their
bowed shoulders, a curious emblem terminating in open serpents'
jaws. The large head (of a jaguar?) is in the centre and above this
issue two puffs of breath with seeds, forming a double recurved figure
so identical in shape and detail to a single branch of the Copau
swastika that one might imagine it was carved by the same hand.
On this tablet, instead of a tree, the centre is occupied by a shield,
exhibiting a face and having tufts of feathers at its four rounded

1 On a large tablet at Ixkun, the cast of which is now in Mr. Maudslay's collection
at the South Kensington Museum, similarly placed figures support on their bent backs
and shoulders standing personages, faeing each other, and surrounded by glyphs.
In this case, however, the men who serve as footstools, are bound and distinctly
show a difference of type and costume, so that there can be no doubt that the tablet
commemorated the conquest of an alien tribe.

675

240 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

corners. This rests on two crossed lances with decorated handles
surmounted by large points.

In this connection it is interesting and important to note that,
in ancient Mexico, lands conquered and acquired in warfare were
termed u mil chimalli," literally, u field of the shield," a metaphor
which was also probably known to the Mayas.

Glancing next at the " Temple of Inscriptions," the fourth of the
large detached temples of Palenque, we find that its interior is
characterized by the most extensive mural inscriptions found in
America, consisting entirely of hieroglyphics. Four exterior free
pillars, however, " contain on their outer faces, modelled in bold
relief, life-sized figures of women holding children in their arms"
(Holmes).

Having brought out the particular point that, in each of the four
temples described, adults are represented in the act of carrying
or offering children or diminutive and strangely grotesque conven
tionalized effigies of human beings, I would note that the only anal
ogous grotesque figures with long noses, I know of, are those on
the sceptres held in the hand by the seated personage on the
" Great Turtle" and by the individual carved on Stela E at Qui-
rigua. It is noteworthy that the left hand of the latter personage
holds a shield displaying a face and recalling that carved on the
tablet of the Palenque "Temple of the Sun." Analogous grotesque
figures also surround the personage carved on Stela F at Copau.
These facts indicate that the Quirigua " Great Turtle," the stelae
at Quirigua and Copan and the Palenque tablets, were erected by
people sharing the same cult and ritual observance, one feature of
which was the carrying of diminutive human effigies, with exag
gerated and almost grotesque noses.

A clue to the significance of this rite is supplied by the text of
the Codex Telleriano-Remeusis (Kingsborough, vol. v, p. 134)
relating to the Mexican 20-day period Iz-calli,the last of the year.
'• It was the feast of Fire, because at this season the trees became
wanned and began to bud. In it was celebrated the festival Pil-
quixtia, meaning "human life or nature which had always escaped
destruction although the world itself had been destroyed several
times."

" Izcalli signifies as much as liveliness, and in this 20-day period
all mothers lifted their children by their heads and holding them
67G

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 241

aloft called out, Izcalli, Izcalli, as though they said 'aviva'=r

live, live This was the period of production thanks

were rendered to the nature which is the cause of the production

Every four years they feasted for 8 days in memory of the

three times that the world was destroyed. They name this " four
times Lord," because this escaped destruction, although all was
destroyed. They designated the festival as that of ' renovation*
and said that when it and the fast came to an end the bodies of
men became like those of children. Therefore, in order to figure
[or symbolize] this festival, adults led certain children by the hand,
in the sacred dance."

Slightly incoherent though this text may be, it furnishes a most
valuable supplement to the descriptions of the same festival by
other authorities. As this is exhaustively treated in my forth
coming text to the " Life of the Indians " in which all available
authorities are quoted and collated, I shall confine myself here to
some facts which bear a special relation to the subject of this
paper. In Mexico another name for the festival period Izcalli,
was Xilomaniztli r= the birth or sprouting of the young maize.
According to Duran, izcalli signified " the creating or bringing up "
and in order to make the growth of children coincide with that of
the young maize, parents, during this period, stretched the limbs
and every part of the bodies of all infants of tender age.

Another observance which was held at this time was in antici
pation of the New Year and consisted in the raising and planting
of high poles or wands with branches, in the courtyards of the
temples and in the streets. These typified the new life; "the
budding and rejoicing of the trees." Another New Year custom
was that of carrying budding branches or young shoots of maize
in the hand, on a particular day named Xiuh-Tzitzquilo, literally,
" the taking of the year in one's hands." The explanation of this
metaphor is given by Duran who states that " the natives consider
that the year, with its months and days, is like a branch with its
twigs and leaves."

A passing mention must be moreover made of the two mov
able festivals celebrated by the Mexicans, in which they scattered
broken egg-shells on the roads and streets as a rite of thanksgiv
ing for " the life bestowed upon the chicken in the shell " by the
divine power. In the image of this festival contained in the "Life
of the Indians," the egg-shells are represented at the foot of a

242 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

tree bearing seven blossoms ; the seated divinity in front of this
wears a bird-mask and carries a staff with a heart in his hand.
These festivals were named respectively, seven flowers and one
flower.

Briefly summarizing the foregoing data, we find it proven that,
deeply impressed with the wonderful renewal of life in nature, the
ancient Mexicans rendered periodical thanksgiving for this in its
various forms. The budding tree, the young shoots of the maize,
all seedlings, the broken egg-shells from which the young chickens
had emerged, were adopted as emblems of the renewal of life.
The child was likewise looked upon as the renewal of the human
race and every four years a thanksgiving festival " of renova
tion " was solemnized in which children took a special part. In my
work on the Calendar system I shall show how far this festival u"of
new birth " coincided with astronomical phenomena. From Landa
we learn that in the Maya months " Chen or Yax," on a day des
ignated by the priest, a festival was celebrated named Ocna : "the
renovation of the temple in honour of the Chacs, the gods of the
maize- fields." This was held each year ... all idols and
incense-burners were renewed and if necessary the building was
rebuilt or renovated and, " in commemoration of this, an inscrip
tion in the native characters was fixed to the walls."

Referring to other chapters of Landa's work we find that, as in
Mexico, the Yucatec children received a " child's name" at birth
which was changed when, having accomplished the third year, they
were " reborn " and received a new name, i.e. the combined name
of their father and mother. On attaining puberty they obtained
an individual name which they preserved during life-time. A
knowledge of the social organization of these people enables one
to grasp the full importance and significance of these changes of
name, which were accompanied by ritual observances and be
tokened the enrolment of the children into their respective classes
and sub-classes and a consequent reorganization of certain de
partments of the State. It appears that in ancient times the cer
emonial of the " new birth," or re-naming of the children, took
place every four years, simultaneously with the thanksgiving feast
for the tc continuation of the human race."

A careful analysis of native words and metaphors tends to show,
moreover, that the children born within each four- year-period were
collectively regarded as " a fresh growth upon the tribal tree." In
678

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 243

Mexico the word for leaf = atlapalli, was employed as a metaphor
for the lower class, whilst in Peru the male and female descendants
of the Incas were represented by gold and silver fruits upon the
trees of their male and female ancestry. The collection of such
scattered scraps of testimony enables us to reconstruct the drift of
native thought and realize that the registration of individuals was
associated with the conception of a tribal tree bearing four branches
and covered with blossoms, fruits and leaves which faded and fell
but were replaced by fresh growths.

We learn from Duran that so careful a record was kept of the
population, by the Mexican priesthood, "that not even a new
born babe could escape detection." The reason for this strict
vigilance is clear, for the welfare of the community and the har
monious working of the complex machinery of state depended
upon the constant renewal of vacancies caused by deaths in each
department of industry and government.

After this excursion into the realm of native thought let us now
return to the Palenque tablets, placed in detached temples which
approximately face the four cardinal points. On the tablet of the
" Temple of the Cross " we have a tribal tree with symbols of the
Middle and of the Four Quarters and of duality. A priest with a
flower on his head presents a diminutive human figure to the to-
temic bird perched on the tree. Another, with a leafy branch on
his head-dress, holds a conventional sceptre simulating a young
growing shoot of maize. Behind each figure are rows of glyphs
and in the upper corner to the left of the spectator is the septenary
series headed by the initial-sign.

In the " Temple of Cross II" we have a variant of the identical
representation in which the maize plant and the sea shell are
prominent. If I may hazard a suggestion of the meaning of
these two tablets, I should say that they appear to be tribal regis
ters most probably relating to the increase and decrease of the
male and female population in all divisions and classes, during a
fixed period of time. Both seem to commemorate the "renova
tion " or " new growth " of the tribal tree in a mode which would
have been as intelligible to a Mexican, for instance, as to a Maya.
The fact that the '• Temple of the Sun " and that of the "Inscrip
tions " obviously held analogous registers, points to the alterna
tive possibilities (1) that each temple was destined to preserve

G79

244 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the register of the population and social organization, etc., of one
of the four quarters of the capital and state, according to years;
(2) that the trees in the " Cross temples " figured the male and
female lineages of the ruling caste, whilst the tablet in the u Tem
ple of the Sun" recorded the numbers of conquered people reduced
to slavery and the " Temple of Inscriptions " preserved the register
of female children or of vassals; (3) that each of the four tem
ples preserved a complete register of the entire state and had been
erected consecutively at the conclusion or beginning of eras, the
difference observable in the central motif conveying the salient
feature or event marking each special epoch and recording, accord
ing to years, the organization of the state during its course.

In the face of this possibility as well as the probability that each
glyph wras painted and implied a year, it is interesting to note
that, including the initial glyph, the u Tablet of the Cross " exhibits
108 glyphs on the side to the left and 124 on the side to the right
of the spectator — a total of 232 ; the " Tablet of the Cross II "
exhibits 76 to the left and 83 to the right— 159 ; and that in the
kt Temple of the Sun," 70 to the left, 159 to the right and 12 in the
middle = 241. The u Temple of Inscriptions " exhibits the initial
series (see Maudslay, Biologia, pt. x, pi. 82) and entire walls
covered with glyphs, some of which, as on the tablets enumerated
above, are accompanied by numerals whilst others are not.

In a future publication I shall submit illustrations of these monu
ments with the ripened results of my investigations concerning
them. For my present purpose it suffices to have produced sub
stantial proofs that the ancient dwellers in Palenque employed the
same metaphors, the same cursive method of registration and held
the same fundamental principles of organization that have been
shown to underlie the civilizations of Peru, Guatemala, Yucatan,
and Mexico and still survive amongst the Zunis and more northern
tribes. It is obvious that, at Palenque and the neighboring Menche
and Ixkun, an integral civilization, based on these principles, had
existed for an incalculable length of time. Strangely enough it
seems to form so close a link between Maya and Mexican culture
that it almost seems justifiable to surmise that both Maya and
Nahuatl languages were spoken in these ancient ruined cities.

Proceeding mentally northwards we will not linger at the ruins
of Mitla, the name of which seems to indicate that it had lain to
680

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 245

the north of a great ancient centre of government, since Mictlan
in Nahuatl and Mitual in Maya both designate the region of the
underworld and the north.

Reaching the ultimate stage of our mental exploration of the
American Continent we now transport ourselves to the Valley of
Mexico and, on the site of the ancient capital of Montezuma and
his coadjutor, face the three great monolithic monuments which
are popularly known as the Calendar Stone, the Stone of Tizoc and
Huitzilopochtli. In 1886, at the Buffalo Meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, I presented a " Pre
liminary Note of an Analysis of the Mexican Codices and Graven
Inscriptions," in which the opinion was advanced that the u Calendar
Stone " was identical with the " circular elaborately carved tablets
which, according to Padre Duran, were erected in each market-place
in ancient Mexico, and were held in great veneration. They were
frequently consulted and by them the market-days were regulated."

"All writers concur in stating that the market was held on each
fifth day, when all adults were obliged by law to resort to the ap
pointed market-place. The entire produce and manufacture of the
state were brought there, even from great distances, severe penalties
being incurred by those who bartered the products of agriculture
or manual labor on the highway or elsewhere. On the broad, straight,
cemented roads which led from the four quarters to the heart of the
capital, '• resting places " for the wayfarers and carriers were pro
vided at fixed intervals. The enormous concourse of people, the
variety of produce exhibited in the market-places of Montezuma's
capital filled the conquerors with wonder and admiration. From
Cortes, Bernal Diaz, Sahagun and others we learn that the market
was a special charge of the supreme chief of Mexico ; that ap
pointed officers presided in state over it whilst others moved among
the throng superintending the traffic. Standard measures were kept
and rigorous punishment awaited those who sold by false measure
or bartered stolen property."

After making the preceding statements I advanced the opinion
u that the periodical market-day was the most important regulator
of the Mexican social organization and that the monolith generally
known as the Calendar-stone was the Market-stone of the City of
Mexico. It bears the record of fixed market days ; and I venture
to suggest that from these the formation of the Mexican Calendar
system originated. The stone shows the existence of communal

681

246 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

property and of an equal divison of general contributions into cer
tain portions "

I concluded the above communication with the statement : " Be
fore publishing my final results I shall submit them to a searching
and prolonged investigation. An examination of the originals of
many of the Codices reproduced in Lord Kingsborough's " Mexican
Antiquities " will be necessary to determine important points and
during the forthcoming year my line of researches will be in this
direction." In my youthful enthusiasm and inexperience I little
foresaw, when I wrote the above sentences, that I should spend thir
teen years in diligent research before I felt ready to express my
ripened conclusions concerning the Calendar-stone. Although the
results I am about to submit are final they are necessarily incom
plete, their full presentation with adequate illustrations being in
cluded in my forthcoming special work on the Social and Calendaric
system of ancient America. For the present I have limited myself
to the reproduction of the outline drawing of the monolith made by
the late Dionysio Abadiano of Mexico and published in his some
what fanciful work on this subject.1 No one, however, had studied
the Calendar-stone more carefully than he ; and, besides being
extremely accurate in outline, his drawing has the merit of in
cluding the eight deep circular holes which were drilled at regular
intervals outside of the worked border of the stone as well as the
groups of smaller circular and shallow depressions which Seuor
Abadiano discovered on the outer unworked portion of the mono
lithic block. Without discussing here the question whether the eight
drill holes were intended to support a species of gnomon, as Leon
y Gama first maintained, or merely served for the guidance of those
who carved this marvel of accurate workmanship and symmetrical
design, I shall merely point out that, although the group of circular
depressions in the block, in the lower corner to the left of the spec
tator, offers a certain resemblance to the form of the constellation
of Ursa Major, this may be merely the result of chance.

Facing the problem of the meaning and purpose of the " Calen
dar-stone," after thirteen years of assiduous study, I find that the
interpretation I suggested in 1886, is substantially strengthened
and corroborated by freshly accumulated evidence. The differ
ence is that I now lay less stress upon the phonetic elements and

1 Estudio arqueologico y jerogliflco del Calendario o gran libro astronomico

Mexico. 1889.

682

AMERICAN* CIVILIZATIONS. 247

values of the symbols, although, as I shall set forth in the special
publication alluded to, no study of the monument can be consid
ered complete unless these be carefully analyzed and understood.
The one great stride in advance that I think I have made is the
recognition that the monolith is an image of the Great Plan or
Scheme of Organization which has been expounded in the preced
ing pages and which permeated every branch of native thought.

The monument represents the high-water mark reached in the
evolution of a set of ideas, which were suggested to primitive man
by long-continued observation of the phenomena of Nature and
by the momentous recognition of the

" northern star,

Of whose true-fixed, and resting quality,
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber'cl sparks,
They are all fire, and every one cloth shine;
But there's but one in all doth hold his place." 1

This inscribed tablet, which constitutes one of the most important
documents in the history of the human race, is as clearly an image
of the nocturnal heaven as it is of a vast terrestrial state which
once existed in the valley of Mexico, and had been established as
a reproduction upon earth of the harmonious order and fixed laws
which apparently governed the heavens.

The monument exposes these laws, the dominion of which proba
bly extended throughout the American Continent, and still faintly
survive in some existing aboriginal communities. It not only sets
forth the organization of state government and the subdivision of
the people into classes bearing a fixed relation to each other, but
also serves as a chart of the territory of the State, its capital and
its four provinces, and minor topographical divisions. Finally, it
reveals that the progress of time, the succession of days, years and
epochs, i. e. the Calendar, was conceived as a reproduction of the
wheel of sinistral revolution described by the circumpolar constella
tions around Polaris. The Septentrioues served as an indicator,
composed of stars, the motive power of which emanated from
the central luminary. This marked not only the march of time
each night, but also the progress of the season by the (bur contra
positions apparent in the course of a year, if observed at a fixed
hour of the night.

1 Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, III, 1, GO.

083

248

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

The twenty familiar day and year signs of the native calendar are
carved on a band which encircles the central figure on the stone.
I am now in a position to prove satisfactorily that these signs were
not merely calendaric and that they equally designated four prin
cipal and 4 X 4 r= 1 6 minor groups of stars ; four chiefs and
4 X 4 =z 16 minor tribal groups or divisions of men.

Merely a few indications will sufiice to prove how completely
and unmistakably the symmetrical design on the monolith (fig. 56)
expounds the great plan which had impressed itself so deeply and
indelibly upon the minds of the native philosophers and influenced
all their thoughts and speculations.

The head and face in the middle of the monument conveys the
C84

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS 249

idea of duality, being masked, /. e. doubled-faced and bearing the
number 2 carved on its forehead. It conveyed the conception of
a divine power who ruled heaven and earth from a changeless and
fixed centre in the heaven ; expressed the dual government of the
earth by twin-rulers who dwelt in a central capital. It typified
light and the heaven itself with its two eyes ; the sun and moon
and darkness and the earth by the mouth; whilst the symbols for
breath issuing from both nostrils and the tongue protruding from
the mouth denoted the power of speech, which was so indissolubly
connected with the idea of chieftainship by the Mexicans that a
title for the chief was "the Speaker." The central head likewise
denoted a u complete count" = one man, and was expressive of a
great era of time, embodying twenty epochs.

As a synopsis of the whole, the following titles recorded in the
chronicles would be applicable to the central ruler, celestial or ter
restrial : the two lord, the divine twin ; the two-lord and two
lady; the quadruple lord, "He who looks in four directions;"
the lord of the thirteen powers ; the one lord, i. e. embodying a
complete count = 20 ; the lord of five (i. e. of the Middle and
Four Quarters) ; of seven, i. e. of the Middle, Above, Below, and
Four Quarters ; of thirteen, i. e. of the duplication or male and
female or celestial and terrestrial divisions of the Above, Below and
Four Quarters plus the Middle.

Surrounding the central head are four square divisions arranged
in two separate parts, each of which includes what appears to be
in one case the right, and in the other the left, conventionalized claw
(forepaw ?) of an animal armed with hooked nails, such as Mictlan-
tecuhtli, the lord of the North, is represented with.

The square compartments contain symbols of the four elements
so disposed that air and water are appropriately associated with
the hand to the right (= male region) and fire and earth with the
hand to the left side (=r the female region) of the central head.
But this is not all, for another carefully devised relation between
the elements likewise appears upon careful examination. In the
middle, carved above the central face and between the symbols
for air and fire, is the conventionalized u ray of the Sun," or
pyramid which typifies " that which ascends or is above " the up
per elements and the Above. As its opposite we find below, situ
ated between the symbols of earth and water, a ring with a
concentric circle representing the drop of water — " that which

685

250 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

descends." As the Moon was inseparably associated with water
and the Below, it is doubtlessly included in the symbolism.

One more point which will receive due attention in my mono
graph remains to be briefly noticed. As the symbol for air = east.
is situated to the right of the symbol for north, and the earth = west
is to its left, it is clear that the central face is conceived as looking
down from above upon the spectator. It is only when the stone
is considered as placed face downward that the symbols assume
their proper positions as regards the cardinal points. This re
versal, which is the natural result of the association of the east and
south with the right hand of the middle personage, suggests that
the monolith may have been originally designed to be let into the
flat or slanting ceiling of a building. As a parallel instance I will
state that, some years ago, Senor Troncoso pointed out to me a
fact he had noticed, namely, that the relative positions of the car
dinal points on the Fejervary chart were reversed and that it must
have been intended to be looked at from underneath.

Each of the element symbols is accompanied by four numerals
placed in the angles of the squares, with one exception, where one
numeral was obviously dislodged from its proper position by an
encroaching emblematic ornament. The positions of these nu
merals and of their square enclosures are what recalled to my mind
the opposite positions assumed by Ursa Major in its annual rota
tion around the axis of the heaven. Just as the central face
primarily represented Polaris, so these squares figured the four con
trapositions of the great constellation. The peculiar, almost cross-
shaped figure resulting from the union and association of the sym
bols of the Centre, and of the Above, Below, Right, Left= Four
Quarters, is a well-known conventional sign, generally known as a
" nahui-olliu." The accepted translation of this name is "four
movements," from olinia, verb — to move, and no name could
be more appropriate for a symbol which, to my idea, like the
swastika, actually represents the movement of the most conspicu
ous of septentrional constellations to four opposite places.

At the same time, as the nahui-ollm on the stone encloses
symbols of the four elements, the union of which was believed by
the native philosophers to be essential for the production and
maintenance of life, I was led to observe also the fact that the
words for life and heart, and the verbs to be alive, to live, to re
suscitate, etc., are all derivatives from the root yuli, or yoli, which
686

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 251

undoubtedly has a common origin with the verb olinia — to move.
It therefore not only appears that, to the native mind, motion and
life were iudissolubly linked together, but that the name nahui-
ollin must have signified four-fold life as well as movement. It
likewise typified the four sides of the great pyramid which formed
the nucleus of the capital and was crowned by two temples, re
spectively occupied by symbolical images of the " Divine Twins."
It is impossible not to realize that, in ancient Mexico, the pyramid
constituted an image of the entire system.

Each of its sides obviously pertained to one of the four regions
and was probably painted with its symbolical color.1 It seems
safe to assume that the pyramid was originally erected by the co
operation of people from the four quarters of the capital and
state and was possibly added to at fixed intervals so that it rep
resented not only the constitution of the commonwealth, but testi
fied to its age and growth. The widely-prevalent primitive custom
that each individual should add one or more stones to a heap of
stones, as an individual contribution, may have been carried out
in the building of pyramids, the origin of which will be discussed
further on.

Although it is almost superfluous to do so, as by this time the
set of associated ideas must be familiar to the reader, I shall
briefly summarize some of the chief four-fold division or organi
zation of which the nahui-olliu was the graphic symbol. It rep
resented :

1. The four elements or substances and kinds of life.

2. The four regions of the heaven, each composed, in turn,
of four sub-regions.

3. The four provinces of the state, each containing four dis
tricts .

4. The four quarters of the capital, each of which had four
wards.

1 A somewhat disheartening consideration concerning the Stone of the Great Plan
deserves mention. The probability is that it was originally painted with the colors
of the four quarters and that some of the records thus made are irretrievably lost.
On taking the first impressions with gelatine, in order to make his admirable cast of
the monolith, Seiior Abadiano discovered many traces of color, lodged in small crev
ices and corners of the carvings. Moreover, the use of the symbolical colors on
stone monuments is vouched fur by the great painted monolith which was, strange to
say, re-interred after having been discovered in the City of Mexico some years ago.
The reproduction of an obviously incorrect drawing made of this stone during its
uncovered state, has been published in vol. n of the Annals of the National Museum
of Mexico.

687

252 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Like the nahui-ollin the pyramid was an image or embodiment
of the fundamental all-pervading principle. Both therefore equally
expressed further meanings which I shall proceed to enumerate.

5. Four stars and also four star-groups or planets which seem
to have been associated with the cardinal points and are indicated
by four discs exhibiting two concentric circles and four ^glyphs
placed around them. Although at a disadvantage, not being able
to substantiate my statement here, I shall mention that, amongst
the above, the Pleiades and the planets Venus and Jupiter doubt
lessly figure, the latter as two evening and two morning stars.

6. The human lords of the four regions who respectively gov
erned the four divisions of the population, who were classified as
the Fire, Air, Water and Earth people, the identical classification
being applied in turn to each class and so on ad infinitum.

7. Rotation or a movement encircling the four quarters imag
ined as " quadruple motion." This was not confined to the Sep-
tentriones, for the ancient Mexican astronomers had recognized
what they termed the "four movements of the Sun" — namely,
its apparent rising in the east and progress to the north ; and set
ting in the west and progress to the south. According to Leon y
Gama, the first to describe the stone in 1832, the central " nahui
ollin" portrayed the " four movements of the sun " and recorded
the solstices and equinoxes. His opinion has since been shared
by other writers, amongst whom I cite Sefior Troncoso. Accord
ing to Sir Norman Lockyer, moreover, the symbol does correctly
and appropriately figure the annual course of the sun. It must
be admitted that the invention of a figurative symbol which not
only records the annual rotation of the circumpolar star-groups
but also the annual apparent course of the sun is an achievement
which has never been surpassed in primitive astronomy and merits
admiration and recognition. The record of the periodical move
ments of the heavenly bodies, constitutes, at the same time natu
rally a register of the four seasons.

8. Simultaneously with the division of the year into four equal
parts, the ollin (and pyramid) typified the division of the 20-clay
period into four quarters as well as the four 13 year periods which
constituted the epoch of fifty- two years. As the Calendar periods
will be discussed in my monograph on the subject, I shall only
mention here a fact showing how completely the quadruplicate idea
had influenced native speculation. The Mexicans believed that
088

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 253

four great eras had passed since the creation of the world and
designated these as the earth, air, fire and water eras. They
believed that, although humanity had always escaped utter annihi
lation, the world had been almost completely destroyed by three
of the elements in succession at the end of three of these eras.
At the time of the Conquest, the Mexicans supposed themselves to
be living in a fourth age which was doomed to perish by fire.

9. According to the distinguished Mexican scholar Seiior Al
fredo Chavero, the symbols in the nahui-olliu commemorated the
four epochs of the world's history and I readily accept this as one
of the many significations of the quadruplicate figure.

Leaving the nahui-ollin for the present, let us next consider the
band, with compartments, which encloses it and exhibits the twenty
symbols hitherto only known as calendaric signs, — four of which
were year- as well as day-signs, whilst sixteen were day-signs only.
Their relative positions show that they were intended to be read
from right to left.

A profusion of evidence, however, exists showing that individ
uals bore the day-names as personal appellations, not only in Mex
ico but also in Central America. Amongst the Quiches for instance,
members of the ''Royal house of Cavek" are designated in the
Popol Vuh, as three deer, nine dog, etc.

It thus follows that the twenty signs were not merely names of
years and days, but also designated the tribes and clans. The
element-symbols which marked every fifth day and the years and
constitute the major signs, likewise were the names of the four
great divisions of the people, and of their respective chieftains.
On the other hand the 4 X 4 z= 16 minor signs, applied not only to
days but to the 4X4=16 clans. At the same time the element
names conveyed in a general way the occupation of each of the
four divisions of people as well as their places of abode in ref
erence to the capital. Accordingly, the earth people would spec
ially attend to agriculture, mining, the manufacture of pottery,
etc. ; water people to irrigation, the furnishing of drinks, fishing,
etc. ; the fire people to all occupations which had to do with fire :
the procuring of combustibles for fire and lighting, cooking, the
working in metals, etc.

As on the stone, the sign calli — house is in juxtaposition to
the symbol for air, it may be inferred that the air people wrere the
builders, the masons,. the artificers, the Nahuatl name for which
i>. M. PAPKRS i 44 689

254 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

was " toltecatl." As the air symbol occupies the place of highest
honor in reference to the central face, namely, above the right hand,
it is evident that the builders, or "toltecas," were the caste which
enjoyed the highest consideration. Their totem was the bird, the
inhabitant of the air. The second rank in honor was held bv the
fire people placed to the left, above. Their totem was the ocelot.

Without going further into details for the present, I merely point
out that the identical division of the members of each community
and association with the elements, etc., was carried out through
out the state. This method clearly, established the relation and
also determined the geographical position of each class of people
in reference to the whole.

The carved band on the Calendar-stone, with its twenty signs,
determined once and for all time the exact position to be taken up
in all public assemblages, in councils, sacred dances, and likewise
controlled the exposition of the products of the land in the great
market-place. What is more : each division of the people, by rea
son of its indissoluble union to one element and one region, also
had its own season during which it led in ceremonial observances.
So skilfully was the lunar ceremonial or religious year devised that
each sign, without any distinction, ruled a period of thirteen days.
At the same time the period fell into four divisions headed by the
four principal or element signs.

In the solar or civil year, each sign had its day, but as the com
putation of years passed by, each sign in due rotation ruled during
one year. It was only when each sign had had an equal rule that
the cycle completed itself, and, in turn, became a part of a greater
cycle of time. To realize the marvellous ingenuity with which the
rotation of days and consequently the working of the entire ma
chinery of state was carried on, it is necessary to have before one's
eyes, a series of reconstructive tables, such as I have prepared for
my paper on the subject. For the present, however, I trust that
some idea of the harmonious organization of the state may have
been conveyed to the reader.

One important feature remains for consideration. As already
mentioned, one of the four annual midnight positions of the Bear
star-groups, and presumably a '• royal star," pertained to each car
dinal-point and consequently to each of the four divisions of peo
ple. To this statement, which can be supported by substantial
evidence, I must add that each of the sixteen minor signs likewise
690

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 255

designated constellations, of which there were thus four in each
region of the heaven. The twenty familiar day-signs thus actually
constituted also the native zodiac. As the region to which each
constellation pertains is clearly designated by the cardinal-point
signs, their identification is merely a matter of time. Since ten of
the signs represent animals, and these were the clan totems, it is
easy to realize how animal forms, composed of stars, came to be
traced in the heavens.

Deferring further discussion of the native zodiac I will but point
out what an intimate relation was thus established and maintained
between star-groups and human beings ; and how the periodical
rotation and stations of the celestial bodies actually guided or, at
all events, coincided with the periods of human activity in various
branches.

I am not, as yet, prepared to formulate a final opinion on the
meaning of the narrow band that surrounds the zodiacal belt, which
is at the same time the list of years and days and of tribes and
clans, but shall merely note that it exhibits four large and four
lesser rays which designate the quarters and half-quarters of the
whole. A few words concerning the symbolism of these rays
should find place here. In Nahuatl the ray was named " toua-
mitl," literally "the shining arrow," "shaft of light." Ixtlilxo-
chitl tells us that it was an ancient custom of his people on taking-
possession of new territory u to shoot with utmost force four ar
rows, in the directions of the four regions of the world."1 This in
teresting passage shows us that the rays, i. e. arrows of light, carved
on the stone, conveyed the idea of possession of the four regions
and four sub-regions by the central power.

Returning to an examination of the concentric band to which the
rays are attached : It exhibits also 4X10 groups of five dots, two
of which groups are almost concealed by star-symbols on the re
curved open jaws of the serpents' heads which meet at the bot
tom of the stone. Above this band and placed exactly between
the larger and lesser rays are single compartments with five-dot
groups. It has been interesting to detect the reason why two five-
dot groups were carved, as I have already pointed out, immediately
under the central head. They evidently supply the missing groups
whose places are filled up by the recurved upper jaws of the ser-

1 Relation, p. 339, Kingsborough, vol. IX.

691

256 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

pents, heads at the bottom of the monolith. From the care taken
to preserve a visible record of these two groups, it is obvious that
a special importance was attached to the recording of eight five-
dot groups besides the forty in the band, making a total of 4 X 12
= 48 groups, or 10 -j- 2 — 12 to each quarter.

As the Mexican name for market was macuil-tianquiztli, lit
erally the " Five (day) market" and the Maya word for capital
was homonymous with five — ho, it is evident that these five dot
groups would have conveyed the idea of u market," market-day
and possibly market-town, to a Mexican. To a Maya-speaking
people they would have appeared to express practically the same
thought, since all capitals, large or small, were market-places and
absorbed and redistributed the product of quadruple provinces
within the radius of its jurisdiction. The inference that the five-
dot groups may have served as a topographical register of the
larger and minor capitals existing in each quarter of the state, is
substantiated by more evidence than can be produced here. I have
moreover found indications that this belt may have served as a sort
of moon- calendar which was also an attempt at an adjustment of
lunar to solar periods.1 Before, however, an estimate can be made

1 Leon y Gama advanced the opinion that the stone, supplemented by a gnomon,
served as a solar clock or dial, to mark the hours of the days and the seasons, etc. He
added that the stone may have served further purposes than those he enumerated and
hints that it may have also recorded lunar periods. This distinguished scholar con
cludes by acknowledging that the ancient Mexicans possessed enlightened knowl
edge of the movements of the principal planets and methods of observing them, in
order to divide time for the purposes of civil and religious government (Description
delas dos Piedras. Mexico, 1852, p. 110).

The late Doctor Philip Valentini, in a learned discourse on the Calendar-stone, read
at New York in 1878, expressed his view that it contained a complete and plastic rep
resentation of the division of time employed in ancient Mexico.

The distinguished Mexican scholar, Sefior Alfredo Chavero, has published the most
elaborate treatise which has been written on the subject and discusses the views of
Gama and Valentini with much erudition. Referring the reader to his publications in
the Annals of the National Museum of Mexico I shall but mention his views that the
four symbols, contained in the quadruplicate central figure, record four epochs of the
native cosmogony, that the central head is an image of the sun and that the monu
ment itself is a votive tablet which was erected to the Sun in historical time, two con
clusions to which I cannot subscribe. It is impossible to discuss fully the valuable
publications of Sefiores Troncoso and Chavero in these cursive remarks, but I shall
do so on another occasion. Meanwhile there is one point upon which both of these
authorities agree, namely, in admitting the possible connection between the civiliza
tion of Mexico and Peru and in recognizing that various ancient people of America
had the nahui-ollin in common. A passage in Senor Chavero's work claims moreover
special mention, as it contains his supposition that the sign nahui-ollin may have
symbolized not only the four movements of the sun, but also those of the moon, which
the writer seems to regard as the nocturnal or dark sun. I am quite ready to agree
with the above authorities on some of the points mentioned, conflicting as their viewa

692

AMERICAN CIVILIZATION'S. 257

of the full meaning of this belt formed by the two great serpents
which encircle the entire monument, more time and labor will have
to be expended.

One point about the twin serpents is clear ; they are represented
as springing from a square enclosing the symbol Acati accom
panied by 13 which has been generally interpreted as a calendar
date. It seems to me to be more deeply significant than a mere
date, especially as it appears to designate the point of departure
for the progressive movement of the two serpents whose open jaws
enclose human heads in profile which together form one face. The
upper jaws end in two recurved appendages, each exhibiting seven
star symbols. As these obviously typify night or darkness and the
open jaws seem to threaten to absorb or engulf the ray of the sun
pointing downwards, it appears as though these typified a disap
pearance of light into the underworld of darkness and destruction.

The symbolical surroundings of the downward ray are in striking
contrast to its opposite, the upward ray, which reaches to the 13
Acatl sign and points to what appears to be the place of origin or
birth of the twin serpents. It certainly seems that this all-embrac
ing and enfolding twin pair are designed to typify the dual forces
of nature under a form which would also express quadruplication.
By what must be termed a stroke of genius the designer of the mon
olith chose to represent the forms of two serpents, relying upon the
fact that Nahuatl-speaking people would see in each serpent ( =
coatl) a twin (= coatl). Did he not also realize that to a Maya
each serpent (= can) would mean 4 (— can) and that the pair
would appear to embody or express the numerals 4 and also 8?

It is noteworthy that each serpent is represented with one claw
and that these two added to those contained in the central nahui-
ollin complete the four-limbed figure which was essentially the im
age of a complete count = the state, the nation, the era, etc. In
this monument, as elsewhere, it is possible to follow the develop
ment of the symbolism expressed by two heads which form but one,

appear to be at first sight. Inasmuch as I regard the monument as the image of a
plan or theoretical scheme which colored and influenced all native thought, I hail
any recognition made by other students of its all-pervading presence in the Calendar
and in the cosmogony of the ancient Mexicans. On the other hand I maintain a view
which materially differs from those of previous writers, namely, that the entire plan
was originally based on the primitive observation of Polaris and in the conception
of a stable centre: the seat of a power extending over the Four Quarters and the
Above and Below.

258 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

twin-bodies which mean four and of four limbs which represent the
digital count =20.

Under different aspects the same theme repeats itself again and
again upon the stone, which proves that the master minds who
planned and wrought it destined it to be the image of a plan based
on the idea of a central and yet all-embracing, dual, yet quadruple
force or power.

The preceding rapid sketch I have given of the wide-reaching
significance of this remarkable monument will, I hope, be found to
amply support and corroborate the view I advanced in 1886, when
I pointed out that the " Calendar-stone" answered to the descrip
tion given by Duran, of the "circular elaborately carved tablets
which were kept in each market-place and were held in great vener
ation." I trust that it is now clear why it should have been fre
quently consulted and why the market-days were regulated accord
ing to the carved indications upon the surface. Engraved upon it
were the Great Plan and its laws of organization and rotation. It
clearly determined, once and for all, the sequence of the days ; the
relation of all classes of the population to each other and to the
whole, and set forth not only the place each group should occupy in
the market-place, but also the product or industry with which it
was associated and the periods when its contributions to the com
monwealth should be forthcoming in regular rotation. The stone
was therefore not only the tablet but the wheel of the law of the
State and it can be conjectured that its full interpretation was more
or less beyond the capacity of all but an initiated minority, consist
ing of the elders, chiefs and priests.

Postponing for the present further discussion of this, the most
precious and remarkable monument which has ever been unearthed
on the American Continent, let us briefly bestow attention upon
the two other monoliths which may be said to be its companions
and obviously belong to the same period and civilization. In 1886,
in the preliminary note cited above, I advanced the view that the
first of these, generally known as the " Sacrificial stone," was a
"law-stone of a similar nature [to the Calendar-stone] which re
corded, however, the periodical collection of certain tributes paid by
subjugated tribes and others whose obligation it was to contribute
to the commonwealth of Mexico." I pointed out that the " frieze
around the stone consists of groups, placed at intervals, of the
flint-knives (tecpatl) with conventionally carved teeth (tlautli)
694

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 259

giving in combination the word '• tecpatlantli." This occurs in
Sahaguu's Historia, as the name given to the " lands of the tecpan
or palace," and in one of the native works I find designated the
four channels into which the produce of these lands was diverted."
I likewise noted that u the periods indicated on it differ from those
on the Calendar-stone," which might more appropriately be des
ignated as the ancient Mexican wheel of the law or of the Great
Universal Plan.

Thirteen years of painstaking research have only served to
strengthen me in my interpretation of the "Sacrificial-stone."
The frieze around it exhibits sixteen groups, each consisting of the
repeated representation of a warrior characterized by having one
foot only. In each case he is figured as seizing by the hair a dif
ferent individual, who bows his head and offers the weapon he
holds in his right hand to his victor. Amongst the sixteen subju
gated personages are two women and above each are hieroglyphs
expressing the names of well-known localities, some of which are
mentioned in native chronicles as having been conquered in his
torical times by Mexican rulers.

In my account of the Plan of the Ancient City of Mexico, I
shall illustrate these hieroglyphs, locate the places to which they refer
and further discuss this monument. Meanwhile I shall but state
that it undoubtedly belongs to the same category of monuments as
the tablets in the "Temple of the Sun " at Palenque ; the bas-relief
at Ixkun and that in the house of the '• Tennis-court" at Chichen-
Itza where warriors in a procession render homage to a seated per
sonage, by presenting their spear-throwers to him in precisely the
same manner as shown on the Mexican Tribute-Stone.

The upper surface of this exhibits the same division into eight
parts, marked by four large and four smaller rays, pointing to the
quarters and half-quarters. Observation shows that of the six
teen localities four were assigned to each quarter and it is evident
that the monument determined the time and the order in which the
tribute for each was paid and collected at the capital. The one-
footed man again graphically symbolizes axial rotation and con
veys the idea of a central ruler who in turn seizes and exerts
control upon 4 X 4 tribal chiefs. The monument establishes,
moreover, the interesting fact that amongst the subjugated com
munities were two gynocracies, represented by women who, in
stead of spear-throwers, present their weaving shuttle to the victor.

695

2GO

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

We shall next consider a monument whose uncouth and ugly
form embodies a deep and nobly planned conception of the " di
vine twin," or " divine Four," that so completely dominated the
minds of the native philosophers.

Let us now carefully examine the monolith now preserved in the
National Museum of Mexico (fig. 57). Leon y Gama, having

observed that what ap
peared to be the foun
dation of the statue was
carved and that massive
projections existed un
der its so-called arms,
logically concluded that
the original design had
been to support the fig
ure from the sides, so
that its base was lifted
from the ground and
the figure upon it ex
posed to view from un
derneath. His inference
is borne out by the carv
ing on the base wrhich
belongs to the same cat
egory as the image of
Mictlan-tecuhtli, and
represents a semi-hu
man body, of quadri-
form shape soaring
downward.

The centre (fig. 51)
exhibits on a square the
five-dot figure, and the
square, in turn, is en
closed in a circle ; the whole symbolism relating to the now well-
worn theme of the centre and four quarters and the union of the
earth = the square and the heaven = the circle. It clearly ex
hibits a skull attached to each limb, typifying the four quarters
or the clans and their chiefs, whilst the hands hold the larger
heads, emblematic of supreme dual rulership. It is interesting to
G96

FIG. 57.

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 261

find that the above carving, under the feet of the sculptured figure,
embodies the entire meaning of the statue, which is but a varia
tion of the native philosophical theme of " Divine Twain " or Quet-
zalcoatl. Two serpents' heads surmount a semi-human body and
meeting form the semblance of two single faces turned to the front
and back of the statue. By this ingenious device the unity, yet
duality of the divine twin is graphically rendered and one-half of
each countenance is represented as belonging to each serpent.
These are thus shown to be indissolubly linked together, yet dis
tinct. Their single, yet dual head has four eyes, eight fangs and
two forked tongues. The figure and skirt composed of intertwined
rattlesnakes, constitute feminine attributes given to the symbolical
figure of the "twin-lord and twin-lady," the "father and mother
of all." Instead of hands the arms terminate in serpents' heads
and the huge feet in great claws.

Between these, in the front and at the back, a rattlesnake's body
and head appear. The belt consists of a large snake whose head
and tail hang down in front, as the ends of a bow. A skull is
attached to the front and another to the back of the belt. In the
latter case it surmounts a fan-shaped, curiously plaited ornamental
appendage partly decorated with feathers. Forming a sort of
necklace in front are four hands, i. e. 4 X 5 = 20 and two con
ventionalized hearts. At the back there are two hands and two
hearts and an intricate knot which fastens the necklace, the real
meaning of which is far from what it may appear to be. It
probably signified the same as the painted hearts and hands on
ceremonial garments of which Sahagun tells us that " they meant
that the people who wore them lifted their hearts and hands to the
Creator to implore for rain and food." At the same time, the ar
rangement in front clearly reveals the sculptor's allusion to the
head, two hearts, four hands and twenty fingers, which symbolize
these familiar numerical divisions. An indication that this sym
bolical statue was probably designed and executed by the same
master who made the circular stone of the Great Plan, is fur
nished by the calendar sign 13 Acatl, which is carved under the
skull at the back of the figure.

Deferring an investigation of the significance of this date, I
shall now draw attention to what is to me the most interesting and
important feature of the whole image. The view of the top of
the two heads, as may be seen by the accompanying reproduction

697

262 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

from a photograph (fig. 58) exhibits, at their line of union, a
small square with diagonal cross-lines. The position of this sym
bol which resembles the top view of a pyramid and forms, as it
were, the apex of the statue, every detail of which is deeply sym
bolical, clearly reveals the sanctity and importance attached to this
graphic image of the Centre, the union of four in one or vice
versa, the theme on which the native mind played numberless and
endless variations.

A reflection, again forced upon one in studying the monumental
composite image of the dual and quadruple forces of nature, is
that it must have been as intelligible to a Maya as to a Mexican,
and conveyed the conception of Kukulcan to the one and Quetz-
alcoatl to the other. Several facts point, however, to the greater

FIG. 58.

probability that the original conception of the monument must
have arisen amongst Maya-speaking people.

The divided square, simulating a pyramid and so obviously a
symbol of four — can, carved on the head of a serpent =: can,
throws an interesting light upon the probable derivation of the
affix — can, which occurs in certain names of localities in Mexico,
and in some cases distinctly stands for " mountain." It is a fact
which has already been cited in Senor Antonio Penafiel's useful
work on the Geographical names of Mexico that, in the picto-
graphic hieroglyphs of localities the affix can signifies a town, be
ing synonymous with the tepee ^ i. e. tepetl, the Nahuatl name for
mountain or town. One of many similar instances, which could
be produced, is illustrated in his fig. xxni. 1, where can obviously
stands for the mountain which is represented as twisted or bent
698

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 263

over (colhua), in the hieroglyph for Colhuacan. The hieroglyphs
for the towns Acayocan and Tenayocan, furnish a similar employ
ment of the mountain to express the sound can. The sense of
the affix caw, meaning a town, only becomes clear when we inter
pret it as the name of the artificial mountain with four sides, the
pyramid, which was the symbol of four = the Maya C«M, and was
the emblem of a central capital. This is convincingly proven by
the Codex Mendoza for instance, in which it is shown that the
Mexican mode of recording the conquest of a tribe was to paint
their hieroglyphic name and a picture of the destruction of the
pyramid temple which had stood in the centre of their capital. In
other words, the conquered town ceased to be a centre of rule —
its captive chieftain was taken to the capital, where the horrible
rite of sacrifice performed upon him and the tearing out of his
heart likewise symbolized the destruction of the independent life
of the tribe or integral whole he represented in his person. It
was thus brought home to the conquered people that they had
ceased to exist as an independent body, and the distribution of the
chieftain's flesh to the ritualistic cannibals graphically symbolized
its absorption into the great central state. It is necessary to em
phasize here that these horrible rites were of comparatively recent
origin and had been invented by the Mexicans for the purpose of
intimidating their vassals, after a prolonged period of wars and
bloodshed, which menaced the very existence of the integral state.
The presence in Mexico of numerous names of towns, ending in
can, seems to indicate the influence, in ancient times, of the Maya-
speaking civilization to which the origin of the pyramid must be
assigned. The association of the latter with the word can is strik
ingly illustrated in the name of Teotihua-Can, where stand the
ruins of two of the largest and most imposing pyramids of ancient
America. The base of the larger of the two has been estimated
at about 700 feet square, it being impossible to take an exact meas
urement owing to the mass of accumulated debris which covers
the lower part of the structure.

The base of the second pyramid measures about 475 feet square.
The sides of both pyramids rose at an angle of about 45 degrees
and were in each case interrupted by four terraces. This double
application of a quadruple division merits special attention, as it
produced besides the four great 4X4 lesser sections, the sacred
centre of the terraces, which crowned each structure. Historical

G99

264 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

tradition relates that the larger pyramid, known as the "En
closure of the Sun (= Tonatiuh-I-Tzacual) ," originally bore on
its summit a colossal image of the sun, covered with plates of
gold, whilst the other, the " Enclosure of the Moon" exhibited a
similar image, covered with silver. The distinguished and reliable
historian Orozco y Berra quotes this tradition adding that the
soldiers of Cortes despoiled the images of their precious metals
and that the Bishop Zumarraga ordered a further destruction of
all monuments at Teotihuacan.

The tradition which records the existence of a silver and of a
gold image, cannot be dismissed as unfounded, because it meets
with a certain amount of corroboration by other data. In the first
case the so-called "battered goddess," a mutilated stone image,
which was found in the courtyard at the base of the "Pyramid of
the Moon," looks as though it may have been the very monument
which was once plated with silver. Traces of concentric bands
of ornamentation seem to indicate that its round face had origi
nally occupied the centre of a sculptured disc, in which case this
must have had a diameter of about twelve feet. In Peru, as already
stated, a silver image of the moon, associated with the female
sovereign, was the complement to the golden effigy of the sun,
associated writh the Inca.

Even if data had not already been produced which establishes
the existence of two religious cults in ancient Mexico, the respec
tive symbols of which were the sun and the moon, the presence of
two pyramids at Teolihuacan would suggest the existence of a
division of some sort. The origin of these great and imposing
structures is shrouded in mystery, but it is generally conceded that
they must have been built long before the comparatively modern
inhabitants of the valley of Mexico, the wandering Aztecs, had
taken up their abode in the midst of the salt lagoons. The erec
tion of two pyramids, however, proves that their builders had
already practised the cult of the middle of heaven and earth, or
Above and Below, and of the Four Quarters for so long a time, that
there had been a separation of religions and government into two
almost independent parts, each complete in itself. In the light of
the testimony produced it is safe to infer that for an indefinite
time the rival cults developed side by side until dissension and con
sequent disintegration followed. The Mexican state was the out-
con, e of a later effort to reorganize and rebuild an integral whole
TOO

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 265

on the ancient plan, the knowledge of which had been preserved
and handed down. As time went on it was inevitable that the
same causes which had caused the more ancient and greater state
to crumble away, should be actively at work on the second.

It has already been shown that two religious existed in Monte-
zuma's time the respective embodiments of which were Huitzilopo-
chtli and Tezcatlipoca. It is an interesting fact, related by Berual
Diaz, that the idols of both stood together in one tower at the
summit of the great temple and were alike, " because they were
brothers." At the same time whilst Tezcatlipoca' s image was dec
orated with obsidian (= tezcatl) Huitzilopochtli's was encrusted
with turquoises. It is curious to note how closely the old soldier's
description of these idols answers to that of the great dualistic
statue which has been discussed in the preceding pages. His ac
count contains the following details : " In this hall were what re
sembled two altars with very richly [ ornamented or carved ] plat
forms on the top of the roof or ceiling. On each altar was a statue,
as of a giant, very tall in body and very stout. The first, which
represented Huitzilopochtli, had a very wide, deformed or monstrous
face and forehead, and terrifying eyes .... around his neck
were faces of Indians and what were hearts. These were of gold
whilst the former were of silver inlaid with blue mosaic-work. The
entire body was covered with mosaic-work, gold and beads and
misshapen pearls, all fastened to it with a kind of cement or glue.
Encircling the body were what were like huge serpents made of
gold and mosaic . . . The idol was of Tezcatlipoca, and its eyes
were made of shining black stone [obsidian] called Tezcat. The
statues were alike because they were said to be brothers. Tezcat
lipoca was the lord of the Underworld . . . and around his body
were figures like small devils with tails like serpents."1 But for the
fact that Berual Diaz mentions a plurality of faces in Huitzilo
pochtli's necklace, whereas our monument exhibits but one skull,
in front, his description strikingly coincides with the monolith now
existing. Considering that thirty years had elapsed before he wrote
this description allowance must be made for this and other slight

1 In the text, as published, Bernal Diaz states that this statue had a face like that of a
bear " un rostro.como de osso," but goes on to say that it was decorated according to
the game mode as the other " del otro." I am inclined to think it more than probable
that instead of " de osso " the text should also read " del otro," as among the many
images of Tezcatlipoca that are extant, none show him connected with the bear in
any form or shape.

701

266 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

lapses. On the other hand, dual statues, exactly alike, but with
differently colored ornamentation, are precisely what we should
expect to find on the summit of the great pyramid-temple of
Mexico. With our present knowledge and comprehension of native
symbolism, moreover, we see that two statues, each of which fig
ured twin-serpents, would best express the native idea of the dual
and quadruple principles and elements. What is more, two dual
statues, each surmounted by a square, diagonally crossed, like a
pyramid, would correspond, in symbolism, to the two great pyra
mids of Teotihuacan and carry out, 'on a small scale, the idea of a
dual government.

Valuable and reliable evidence, showing to what an extent the
Mexicans regarded their government as dual and quadruple, can be
gleaned from the records of the presents sent by Montezuma to
Cortes, under the impression that the bearded Spaniards were the
descendants of the ancient founders of their civilization. The na
tive ruler sent the complete ceremonial dress of the four lords of
the four regions denoting by that act of homage that he acknowl
edged Cortes as his equal, i. e. the supreme central lord who united
the four-fold power in his person. "He likewise sent him a large
wheel of pure gold, covered with designs and with the image of a
monster in its centre." Its weight was estimated at 3,800 " pesas"
and it was considered " the finest and best of all the presents."
It was accompanied by u a large wheel of silver," weighing forty-
eight marcos. By the light of our present knowledge it may be that
both " wheels " were images of the Great Plan and that whilst the
gold one set forth the constitution and organization of the Upper
division of the State and possibly conveyed the statistics of its
members, the silver wheel was a record of the Lower division. The
gift of these tablets must have been intended as an act of sub
servience and an acknowledgment of Cortes as the lord of the
Above and Below, as well as of the Four Quarters. The utter lack
of understanding for the symbolism of these gifts on the part of the
recipient, can scarcely have escaped the notice of Montezuma's
messengers and must have sorely puzzled their unfortunate master.

The existence in Mexico at the time of the Conquest, of a dual
state, suggests the possibility that, in some way, the pyramids of
Teotihuacan continued to be connected with the opposite and rival
cults of the Sun and the Nocturnal Heaven, although their origin
was shrouded in the past. It is known that their site was vener-
702

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 267

ated : besides, the name Teotihuacan, which Orozco y Berra trans
lated as ''the place of the masters as keepers of the gods" or
'• the place where the gods were adored," most probably really
meant " the divine four-sided mountains or pyramids" or, possi
bly, " the sacred pyramids of the lords."

Until an extensive, carefully- planned and systematical explora
tion has been carried out at Teotihuacan, it is impossible to form
any definite conclusions concerning its past history. Cherish
ing the hope that such an exploration may yet be made during
my lifetime, I shall merely make a few remarks concerning the
ruins, which I visited many years ago. Approaching them from
the south one enters a broad straight road, several miles in length
and about 250 feet wide, which is bordered at each side by a series
of irregular mounds, probably covering ruined structures. This
imposing road leads directly into the vast courtyard which stretches
across the base of the great pyramid of the Moon. As the City
of Mexico lies to the south of Teotihuacan it is significant to find
that this road leads from that direction to a vast pyramid sit
uated at the north, which was, according to the ancient Mexicans,
the region of the Underworld, darkness and death. It is not sur
prising, therefore, to find that the ancient native name which still
clings to the roadway is "the patli of the dead." The presence,
moreover, of innumerable small clay heads which are, undoubtedly,
portraits or effigies of persons represented as dead, points to the
alternative that Teotihuacan may have been the necropolis of an
ancient civilization or that it was, even at the time of the Con
quest, the place where a register of deaths was kept by the priest-
rulers, by means of small clay effigies.

Considering the native idea, it seems more than probable that
all matters pertaining to the dead should be relegated to the northern
region and the fact that the road from the south leads to a pyra
mid which tradition associates with the moon, the symbol of the
nocturnal cult of the " Below," lends color to these views.

There is a temptation to imagine that possibly after the adop
tion of two distinct cults of which the second pyramid seems to
furnish incontrovertible proof, a further divergence ensued result
ing in the ultimate abandonment of the capital by the votaries of
the Sun, the male principle and the Above. As the native civili
zations were based on such a plan that dissension and disorgani
zation inevitably led to utter downfall and ruin, it is easy to see

703

268 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

that a gynocracy and the cult of the earth and underworld should
gradually become extinct. At the zenith of its power, however,
it may safely be inferred, that Teotihuacan was a great centre
where astronomical observation and agriculture flourished, these
being the natural outcome of the cult of mother-earth and the
nocturnal heaven. Whilst all conjecture must necessarily be hy
pothetical, it is a comfort to reflect that, locked in the ruins them
selves, lies guarded the past history of Teotihuacan, which was
shrouded in a mist of uncertainty even at the time of the Con
quest.

The pyramids themselves, however, openly reveal the fact, that
their builders possessed a knowledge of the great plan, and that,
at some time, a single central pyramid not being sufficient, two,
of unequal sizes, arose to bear lasting testimony not only of past
greatness, but of long-forgotten rivalry and dissension. Finally,
there is one thing certain, namely, that the building of the pyra
mids at Teotihuacan must have been preceded by an extremely
long period during which the native ideas, of which they were the
expression and image, had developed and taken definite shape. If
Teotihuacan yields evidence of an advanced stage in the history
of the intellectual development of the native race, it also marks
the beginning of the disintegration of the state of which it was
the central capital On the other hand, at Cholula, also situated
in the high plateau of Mexico, to the east of its present capital
stands, in ruined solitary grandeur, the largest pyramid on the
American continent, whose base is twice as large as that of the
pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.

The name of the ancient capital of which it formed the nucleus
was Tullan Cholollan Tlachiuhaltepec.1 Boturini (op. cit. p. 113)

1 In Tullan we seem to find the Maya equivalent to the Mexican Itzacual = enclosure,
by which the Teotihuacan pyramids are popularly designated, as may be verified by the
discussion of the Maya word in the preceding pages (cf. tulum, tulul, tuliz, tulacal),
which conveys the idea of something enclosed, entire, whole and universal and
will be reverted to. Cholol-lan seems to be connected with the verb cholol-tia = to
escape (like game from a snare or net) to fly, or to spring away. According to this,
Cholol-lan would mean " the place of escape or flight " and it will be seen that this des
ignation will be found to agree with the native tradition concerning the purpose of the
pyramid, which will be cited presently. It is not impossible, however, that Cholol-lan
may be bilingual and also be a corrupt rendering of the Maya ho or /tooZ = head, also
capital. This supposition receives a certain support from Padre Rios' statement that
"the inhabitants of Cholula, in their sacred festivals, performed a solemn dance around
the pyramid chanting a song which began with the words Tulanian Hulaez. These, he
states, " belonged to none of the languages now spoken in Mexico" (Orozco y Berra
op. cit. p. 363). The name Tlachiuhaltepetl is translated by Orozco y B3rra by

704

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 269

cites an old native manuscript on which a picture of the pyramid
of Cholula was painted with the note that, in ancient times, it was
named Tultecatl Chalchihuatl On Azia Ecatepec, which he trans
lates as " the monument or precious jade stone of the Toltecs, which
rears itself in the region of the air." As eca-tepec literally means
air-mountain, Boturini's translation may seem somewhat exag
gerated ; on the other hand, the Spaniards, who knew the Xahuatl
language best, repeatedly state that its words were so replete with
significance that it would sometimes require several Spanish sen
tences to set forth the meaning of a single native word. Boturini,
who had exceptional opportunities for obtaining information, adds
to the above the following translation of a Nahuatl inscription
which had been written by the native scribe below the drawing
which unfortunately is now lost. u Nobles and Lords : Here you
have your documents, the mirror of your past, the history of
your ancestors who, out of fear for a deluge, constructed this place
of refuge or asylum for the possibility of the recurrence of such a
calamity."

After citing the opinions of various authors concerning the ori
gin of the pyramid, Orozco y Berra concludes that "there is no
certainty about its age, but instinctively it is supposed to be ex
tremely ancient and to pertain to pre-historic times. According to
my judgment the people who constructed it belonged to the same
civilization as the builders of Teotihuacan and possibly were their
contemporaries. Cholollan was also a venerated sanctuary, in
which the religious idea predominated" (op. clt. p. 363). "At
the time of the Conquest a temple stood on the summit of the

"mountain made by hand," i. e. artificial mountain or pyramid; from tlachiuhaliztli,
the act of accomplishing some work forming or creating something. As the origin of
primitive symbolism is a question of such deep interest I shall mention here some
curious data in connection with the pyramid. The word Tlachiuhale was a title or
name applied to the " Creator or Former of living creatures." In order to express the
sound of this word in the picture-writings, it is obvious that a pyramid could have
been employed, since it graphically and phonetically conveyed the desired sound
tlachiual-tepctl. At the same time a complementary sign would be necessary so as to
obtain a symbol which would specially apply to the Creator alone. The word
tlachia =to look, see, watch, naturally suggests itself, as a complement to the sound
tlach; and to express, in a cursive way, the action of seeing, an eye sufficed. We
thus see that an artificial mountain or pyramid and an eye formed a hieroglyph which
expressed the sound " Tlachiuale" and .signified the "Creator." As the eye by itself
was the sign for star, and the idea of a central star, as frequently depicted in the
nahui-ollin sign, was an emblem of the creative and central power, it is evident that,
besides its literal meaning, i. e, an artificial or created mountain, a " tlachiuhaltepetl"
would have been regarded by the initiated as the Mountain of the Creator, the
eacred pyramid, which was the image of central, dual and quadruple power.

P. M. TAPKRS. I 45 705

270 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

pyramid and contained an image of Quetzalcoatl (the Divine Twain,
the Creator, the Father and Mother of all) as well as an aerolite,
shaped like a frog which had fallen from heaven, wrapped in a
ball of flame." In the Vatican MS. of Padre Rios there is another
version of the tradition that the pyramid had been erected by giants
after a deluge, which had destroyed everything, .... and that
before it was finished, fire fell upon it causing the death of its
builders and the abandonment of the work.

Allusion has already been made,. in the preceding pages, to the
native traditions according to which, " there had been three mem
orable epochs in the history of mankind, which lasted for cen
turies and were abruptly terminated, each time by a mighty con
vulsion of nature. The majority of human beings perished in
each of these, but a remnant survived and thus the race was pre
served."

The periodical festival of thanksgiving, which was still observed
at the time of the Conquest by the native races, abundantly testi
fies to the reality of their belief in these great catastrophes and the
preservation of their ancestors from utter extermination. It was
doubtless in order to make their past history conform with the
quadruple organization of all epochs of their native Calendar that
the native sages assigned their successive destructions to the sep
arate agencies of fire, water and air, in the form of violent tem
pests and cyclones. From descriptions contained in the Mexican
Codex Chimalpopoca and in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the
Quiches, it will be seen that the phenomena described are such as
would naturally accompany a volcanic outbreak on a great scale.
Considering that, in Mexico alone, there are no less than nine
monster volcanoes, of which two are not yet extinct, and that in
Guatemala, in historical times, whole cities have been destroyed by
earthquakes and volcanic action, it is not at all astonishing to find
traditions of great catastrophes amongst the inhabitants of these
regions.

No one can look upon the grand snow-clad peaks of the great
volcanoes, which surround the high central plateau of Mexico,
without realizing that mighty upheavals and disturbances, such as
the world has seldom seen, must have attended the formation of
the huge craters next to which Vesuvius seems but a hillock. A
volcanic outbreak amongst these elevated peaks, which range from
15,000 to 19,000 feet above the sea-level, would obviously be ac-
706

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 271

companied by great inundations caused by the melting of the
masses of snow which crown their heights. The valley of Mexico
in which the large lagoons lie, as in a basin without an outlet, and
the plains which surround Cholula and stretch to the base of the
volcanoes must repeatedly have been the scene of ruin and desola
tion, lasting for many centuries. As the Abbe Bourbourg justly
remarks : " The majority of the edifices in the City of Mexico are
built of volcanic tufa, said to have been formed by the small vol
canoes which lie at the southeast of the valley of Mexico. At va
rious periods of antiquity great masses of lava have descended into
this valley, in which one extensive ancient lava-field is now known
as the ' Pedregal de San Augustin.' " Another great flow of lava has
actually been traced from its apparent source, the now extinct vol
cano of Ajusco, at the south of the valley of Mexico, to Acapulco,
on the Pacific coast.

The Mexican chronicles describe as follows the destruction of
the earth by fire : " . . . . there came a rain of fire : all that ex
isted was burnt and a rain composed of sand-stone fell. It is said
that whilst the sand-stone we now see was being formed the tet-
zontli [i. e. volcanic tufa], boiled with great noise. Then the red
mountains also lifted themselves up . . . the sun consumed
itself [was darkened], all houses were destroyed and all the lords
or chiefs perished . . . ;

The same author relates how, after the repeated destruction
by water, obscurity reigned for twenty-five years. This cataclysm
is also described in the sacred book of the Quiches as follows :
" Then . . . the waters became swollen by the mere will of the
Heart of Heaven and there came a great inundation from above
and descended upon the people .... they were deluged and
then a thick resinous substance fell from the sky. The face of the
earth was obscured and a dark rain commenced and fell during
the day and during the night .... there was great sound of
fire overhead. Then the people ran pushing each other and filled
with despair : they endeavoured to mount upon the houses and
these, falling in, threw them again to earth. They wished to climb
the trees, but these swayed and cast the people from them ; they
tried to enter caves, but these shut themselves before them . . . "
It was after this universal ruin and destruction that, according to
native tradition, the pyramid of Cholula was erected, as a place of
refuge for the remnant of the native race which had escaped de-

707

272 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

struction and returned to the scene of desolation, lured by the rich
ness of the fertile soil, just as the Italian peasants return to their
vineyards on Vesuvius after each eruption. All things considered
there seems to be no ground for rejecting the native tradition
which affirms that the great pyramid of Cholula was erected us a
place of refuge from inundations, especially as no more plausible
explanation of the origin of the pyramid can be imagined. Any
primitive people, inhabiting fertile plains which abounded in game
and fish, and food-plants, but were exposed to frequent inunda
tions, could not fail to recognize the advantages of an elevated
piece of ground as a place of safety. It is easy to imagine the in
termediate stages in the transition from this simple recognition to
the final determination to build a compact, high and spacious eleva
tion, within the reach of all inhabitants of a settlement, on which
these could not only find refuge from the dangers of floods and
volcanic disturbances, but also store their harvest, and possibly
some form of raft or boat which they might employ as a last means
of escape.

Irrefutable proof that the maize had been cultivated from remote
antiquity in this region, and had even become identified with it, is
furnished by the fact that the name of the small republic of Tlax-
calla, which lies in the neighboring foot-hills, signifies bread, and
that its hieroglyphic sign consists of two hands holding a tortilla,
or maize-cake.

It is well known that botanists have not yet succeeded in identi
fying, amongst the native grasses of America, the ancestor of the
cultivated maize-plant. They assert, however, that the develop
ment of what is now the world's largest cereal, from a wild native
species, must have required incalculable time.

It must be admitted that no factor could possibly have more
speedily impressed upon primitive men the benefits of concerted
action and of organization and communal life than the occasional
recurrence of a great and imminent peril which was shared by all
alike, and for which there was but one visible means of escape.
It is equally clear that, once a concerted and united undertaking
had been determined upon, some sort of plan and organization
must have naturally evolved itself. The mere building of such a
gigantic structure as the pyramid of Cholula, which may well have
absorbed the energies of several generations of men, or, at all
events that of innumerable workmen, could well have been an
708

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 273

abiding and most powerful factor in establishing their social or
ganization. Its erection must indeed have marked an epoch in the
lives of the inhabitants of this region, because, during many years
it created a bond of common interest which, of itself, might well
have laid the foundation of a permanent communal life, in which
responsibility and labor were equally distributed. The mere ne
cessity to expend an equal amount of material and labor upon the
building of each side of the pyramid, would naturally lead to the
formation of pathways traced by the feet of the carriers of earth
and stone from different directions, and ultimately to a division of
the workers into four bauds, each associated with a different car
dinal point. Practice would demand that each band should be un
der leadership, and be divided into those who collected and carried
material, and those who placed it in position, at each side of the
pyramid. The necessity for general supervision and directorship,
extending over the four bands of workers alike, would, of itself,
create central rulership upon which would devolve the duty of en
forcing an equal division of labor, which would create, in turn,
some form of systematic routine and rotation. It can thus be un
derstood how, by slow degrees, each side of the pyramid would be
come permanently identified with a cardinal point ; and associated
with a division of workmen under its leader and a fixed period of
time. It may likewise be seen how a separate caste would slowly
develop itself, consisting of the trained architects and builders,
the descendants of the first organizers of human labor, and sys
tematical rulers of men.1

It may thus be seen how the realization of frequent danger, the
necessity to provide an escape and insure the safety of the race,
aided by experience, might lead to the conception of a vast pyra
mid, the mere building of which would create and establish the
fundamental principles of organization and government.

The simultaneous development of the ideas suggested by Polaris
would inevitably lead to a comparison and association of the ter
restrial centre of communal activity with the polar axis, and to

1 The testimony of early Spanish missionaries established the fact that in ancient
Mexico a caste of master builders and masons existed, whose name, Tulteca, iden
tified them with the ancient centre of civilization and integral state of Tullau.
" Whenever the natives were asked who had constructed certain edifices, passes and
roads, etc., they invariably answered the ' tultecas,' a Nahuatl word in current use,
which signified ' the skilled artificers or workers in stone, etc., the master-masons or
builders.' "

709

274 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the conception of an earthly government in which human affairs
were adjusted so as to be in seeming harmony with the movements
of celestial bodies. The blending of the conclusions attained by
the astronomer-priests, and the practical system adopted by the
master builders, could not fail ultimately to cause the pyramid to
appear as the sacred visible sign or image of the single, central
power and quadruple government which extended its rule through
out heaven and earth. I venture to point out that, if carefully
analyzed, the pyramid seems to be but a later development
of precisely the same ideas which are expressed by the swas
tika.

Pausing now to review preceding data we find it demonstrated
that the geographical position of Tullan Cholollan and its pyramid
designates it as an ancient seat of civilization where the native
scheme of organization may have evolved itself, and the source
whence the native traditions concerning successive destructive cat
aclysms and convulsions of nature may have spread.

What is more, the peculiar conditions existing at Tullan Cholol
lan, situated in the heart of a volcanic region, would amply explain
the traditional destruction and abandonment of the most ancient
centre of native civilization and the spread throughout the conti
nent of the identical scheme of government, etc., it being most
natural that each band of fugitives, on finding what appeared to
be a favorably situated region, should settle there and carry out
the inherited plan of organization, etc., which would naturally
become slightly modified under altered conditions. Fresh colo
nies on the pattern of the ruined metropolis and integral state
would successively be founded far and wide and as examples of
such I venture to designate Tulantziuco, literally the title Tullau,
and possibly Teotihuacan, where the native civilization seems to
have undergone its more advanced stages of evolution, and to
have risen in power, developed divergent cults with separate lan
guages (the Maya and the Nahuatl) and instituted the two relig
ions and dual rulership which eventually led to dissension and the
dissolution of the integral state at a period anterior to historical
times.

The assumption that the most ancient centre of native civili
zation lay in a volcanic region affords a plausible explanation of
how an inordinate value would naturally be placed on stability,
per se, and the feelings of veneration for Polaris and a passionate
710

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 275

longing for a place of terrestrial and celestial rest would become
strongly developed. Indeed, it is only possible to understand the
reason why various American tribes wandered about in ardent
and earnest search for the stable middle of the earth, when it
is assumed that they must have been driven from their former
place of residence by volcanic disturbances which made a firm
piece of ground under foot seem to be the most desirable of all
earthly benefits. I venture to* assert that this search and the ideal
of stability would not have been suggested so forcibly to people
who had never experienced a long succession of more or less
terrible earthquakes.

Although widely different opinions concerning the identification
of the ancient Tullan are held by American archaeologists they
will all doubtlessly admit that at Cholollan we have, in the first
case, a locality to which the natives assign the name of Tollan,
and a pyramid, the largest on the American continent, which tes
tifies that, in prehistoric times, this place was inhabited for a pro
longed period, by a numerous and organized community.

The fertilit}' of the surrounding plains now known as the
Campina de Puebla and the ancient name of Tlaxcalla yield evi
dence that, from time immemorial, this district was associated
with maize cultivation.

The vicinity of the giant volcanoes of Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl
and Orizaba1 sufficiently demonstrate that they must repeatedly
have been the scene of violent disturbances which would fully
account for the tradition of successive cataclysms which destroyed
a vast state and almost annihilated the native race.

The foregoing unassailable facts undoubtedly justify the con
clusion that the giant pyramid of Cholula marks the site of the
great and ancient Tollan whose destruction was the theme of the
plaintive native songs of lamentation even at the time of the Spanish
Conquest. That the natives have ever regarded Cholula as a place
of particular sanctity is shown by the following statement by
Fray Geronimo Roman y Zamorra (1569-1575) (Republicas de In-
dias, ed. Suarez, Madrid, 1888) : "It was Colola or Cholola,
which was the ancient metropolis or head of all the native relig
ion, so much so that all the great chiefs or lords had their own

1 The ancient native name of this volcano was Citlal-tepetl , literally the Star
Mountain, from which it may, perhaps, be inferred that, from the plains, its high
and sharp peak served as a means of registering the movements of certain stars and
planets.

711

276 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

chapels and dwelling houses there because they used to perform
pilgrimages to its great temple this being the most revered [in the
land]."

It is also reasonable to infer that the region of the high plateau
and valley of Mexico, possibly before the formation of the great
lagoons, was the cradle of ancient American civilization, where,
during countless centuries, the native race literally and figuratively
cultivated its own maize and simultaneously developed the set of
ideas which formed the basis of its intellectual evolution.

In this connection it is interesting to reflect that, as clearly
shown by ceremonial usages which existed throughout our conti
nent and survive to the present day amongst the Pueblo Indians,
it is to the fostering care, forethought and labor of countless gen
erations of women, the "• Corn Maidens and Mothers," that America
owes the priceless legacy of a food-plant which has already sus
tained untold millions of lives. Thus, whilst the ancient " Daugh
ters of the Earth " have given their country a gift which will
last for all time, the pyramids, temples and cities, reared by the
" Sons of Heaven," have fallen into ruin, and the great edifice of
human thought that they reared, their complex social organization,
government and calendar now lie superseded under the dust of
time.

At this point of investigation the question naturally arises,
Whence came the founders of the native civilization, who estab
lished themselves and peopled the central region of Mexico and
doubtlessly dwelt there for a prolonged period prior to the first of
the traditional cataclysms which nearly proved destructive to their
race ?

It is obvious that, before this interesting question can be satis
factorily discussed, a minute analysis and investigation should be
made of all other ancient civilizations of the world in which the
swastika was employed as a sacred symbol. A comparative re
search on such a scale could only be effectively carried out with the
active cooperation of orientalists, archaeologists and philologists in
all departments of research. Taking, as an index, the presence in
old centres of civilization of the most ancient sacred symbol of the
world, the swastika, the aim of the joint investigation should be to
trace how far it was accompanied, in each country, by pole-star
worship and the set of ideas, symbols and words to which it is so
indissolubly linked in ancient America and China. By this means
712

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 277

only can a final conclusion be reached as to whether this symbol
spread over the earth from one original centre of civilization, or
whether it suggested itself to primitive observers of Septentriones
in various localities and at different times, as the natural outcome
of star-observation. If the swastika and the septentrional set of
ideas spread from one centre then we should expect to find them
accompanied by traces of a common language. I shall have con
tributed my share to the joint investigation when, in addition to
the preceding data, I present the following list of Maya and Mexi
can names intimately associated with the native symbols and set
of ideas. In presenting them I once more draw attention to the
resemblance of sound in words which obviously influenced the choice
of certain symbols just as, for instance, loose-skinned oranges are
now given as presents at New Year in China, because their native
name has exactly the same sound as the word meaning " good
fortune." The use, especially on porcelain, of the bat = full, to
signify "happiness," also full, and of the sonorous stone "King"
to emblematize " prosperity,"1 are other instances which shed much
light upon the origin of primitive symbolism in China and else
where.

SYMBOLS AND NAMES CONNECTED WITH MIDDLE OR CENTRE.

Maya .

Ho, or Ti-hoo = name of ancient capital of Yucatan.

Ho-m, or ho-mul = artificial mound or pyramid.

Ho-mtanil = belly.

Ho-bnel= entrails.

Ho = five, symbolized by hand — kab, also by five-dot group.

Ci-hom =. sacred tree, the leaves of which were scattered in the
temple court-yard at the baptism of children (Landa).

Ho-l= head (symbol).

Ho-och = vase in general.

Cuxabel = heart or life, cf. ah-cuch-cab =. heart of the state,
title of lord or chieftain.

Xic, or nic-te — flower, usually represented as consisting of five
parts, i. <?., the centre and four petals.

Tern =. the square altar.

i China, Prof. Rob. Doujrlas, p. 259.

713

278 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

NAMES OF SYMBOLS CONNECTED WITH FOUR QUARTERS, ABOVE AND

BELOW.

Maya.

Can — four, serpent.
Caan = sky, cord.
Canalil = adj. grandeur, elevation.
Canal = on top of, on ; also yellow.
Caual-cun-zaal — to exalt, elevate, aggrandize, praise.
Cananil:= necessity, need.
Canaan = adj. necessary, needed.
^Che — tree.

Zin-che i= cross, literally tree of life or of power.
Zin-il = powerful, cf. zihnal — original, primitive.
Zihzabal =. creation.

Zian = the beginning, origin, generation.
Zihil =. to commence, or be born.
Zinan = scorpion, symbol.

NAME AND SYMBOL OF NORTH.

Maya.

Am = spider.
Amau = the north.

STAR-NAMES.

Maya.

Ek = star, black.

Ek-chuah = name of the patron divinity of travellers and trad
ers, /. e., the pole-star.

cf. Ikal, native word adopted by Spanish missionaries to denote
" a spirit."

I have already pointed out how a minute comparison of the
equivalent Mexican symbols and their names shows that the latter
often seem to be mere translations from the Maya and that the
same identity of sound does not always exist between the Nahuatl
symbol, its name and true significance. On the other hand in the
much-used Mexican symbol for the centre and four quarters, the
flower, pronounced ho-chitl, but written xo-chitl, the archaic Maya
syllable ho, so intimately connected with the centre, recurs. It also
appears in the name of the constellation Ursa Minor, xo-necuilli,
714

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 279

in the word xoch-ayotl = tortoise, employed as a symbol, and in
the name xolotl = something double or dual, sometimes employed
as a synonym of coatl == twin, serpent. The hand =r maitl was
employed to express the numeral five = macuilli. It is particu
larly interesting to note that in order to express the word tlachi-
ual-tepetl or " artificial mound" (the Maya horn) in Nahuatl, the
scribes had to paint a mountain surmounted by an eye, a symbol
also employed to designate stars = the eyes of night. The Na
huatl for tree — quahuitlis almost homonymous with quaitl= head
and both were employed as symbols of the centre.

The following Nahuatl words claim special attention. The first
is teotl, which was adopted as the equivalent of the Greek Theos by
the Spanish missionaries, but which appears to have been originally
used in the sense of a a Divinity," or •' divine lord," and was also
applied to all lords or rulers.
The second is the verb yoli or
yolinia = to live and yollotl =
heart. A special interest at
taches itself, however, to the
noun yauatl — circle and the
verb yaualoa — to go around in
a circle many times, because
there is good ground for identi- $
fying, as the Ursa Major, the
star- god mentioned as Youal-
tecuhtli by Sahcngun. Asyoualli
means night, the title literally
signifies "the lord of the night,"
while yaual — tecuhtli would

mean the lord of the circle or wheel, the most appropriate name
for Ursa Major. The actual representation, in the '• Lyfe of the
Indians," of the " Lord of Night," within a wheel or circle com
posed of his own footsteps, so strikingly corroborates this view,
that further comment appears unnecessary (fig. 59).

In conclusion the exact meaning of the most important native
symbols is here recapitulated so as to facilitate comparative re
search.

THE SWASTIKA OR CROSS

the most ancient of primitive symbols was primarily a graphic

715

280 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

representation of the annual rotation of the Septentriones around
Polaris. It thus constituted not only an image of the most im
pressive of celestial phenomena but also a year-symbol. The
most highly-developed forms of the swastika found in Mexico are
associated with calendar-signs. In Mexico and in the Ohio Valley
it is linked with the serpent, to the symbolism of which reference
should be made. In Copan the cross- symbol is associated with the
image of a figure in repose, occupying the Middle, and four puffs of
breath or air, laden with life-seeds, emanating from this.

Considering that the cross ultimately became the symbol of the
union of the four elements or two principles of nature in one and
that the production of life-producing rain was attributed to the
union of heaven and earth, it is evident why the Cozumel cross
was described to its Spanish discoverers, by the natives, as a sym
bol of the " rain-god."

THE SACRED FIRE

which was kept perpetually burning on the summit of the pyramid
was the graphic and appropriate image of the central light of
heaven that most naturally suggested itself to the native mind.
Its origin was attributed to supernatural agency and it was under
the special care of the priesthood. A deeply symbolical meaning
was obviously attached to the ceremonial kindling of the sacred
fire by means of the reed fire-drill which was held perpendicularly
and inserted into a horizontally- placed piece of dry wood. A
noteworthy resemblance to a tail- shaped figure was thus formed,
which is interesting in connection with the fact that the ceremony
of kindling the sacred fire was undoubtedly regarded by the an
cient Mexicans as emblematical of the productive and life-giving
union of the dual principles of nature. The acatl or reedstalk,
inserted into the vase-like symbol of the earth, such as is carved
on the centre of the upper edge of the calendar-stone, is but
another hieratic form of the same symbolism.

The annual re-distribution of the sacred fire to the entire popu
lation, a fresh gift from heaven obtained by the mediation of the
high-priest, was particularly impressive and emphasized the idea
of all fire and light and life proceeding from a common centre.

It is noticeable that the reed or acatl is also intimately asso
ciated with the east, the masculine or life-giving region. The
716

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 281

Maya name for tortoise = ac, is a curious homonym of the Xa-
huatl word ac-atl.

THE SERPENT

emblematizes and expresses the souud of quadruple power in
Maya and duality in Nahuatl. It was employed as an image or
embodiment in a single form of the two principles of nature or
the four elements. It was usually accompanied by the adjective
heavenly or divine and symbolized reproduction, being the union
of the masculine or heavenly and feminine or earthly principles.
In this connection it should be noted that the numeral two in Na
huatl is ome, and in Maya, ca. A native mode of expressing duality,
by means of two horn-like projections on the heads of allegorical
personages, is exemplified in fig. 29, p. 92.

THE TREE

was the emblem of life, of hidden and visible growth which extended
downward into the earth and upward into heaven and sent forth its
four branches towards the cardinal points. It typified tribal life
because its various parts were identified with the different members
of the community and, metaphorically, the lord was spoken of as
the trunk or main stem ; the minor chiefs as branches and twigs ;
the men or vassals as leaves ; the maidens as flowers, and the
women as fruit, etc. The name " atlapalli " was, for instance,
the current Nahuatl appellation for vassals.

As the conventionalized trees in the native picture-writings are
usually figured with four equal branches they formed an appro
priate image of the living state, and of all directions in space.
The "tree of life" thus formed a swastika or cross and both
symbols were indissolubly linked together. The names of two trees,
considered particularly sacred by the Mayas, were the ci-hom and
the yax-che, a sort of ceiba which was termed " the tree of celes
tial life " (Landa) .

THE HUMAN FACE

was an image of the duality and unity of nature. The upper half
of the face symbolized heaven with its two eyes, the sun and
moon. The mouth and teeth, the Nahuatl name for which = tlan-
tli was homonymous with the aflix tlan = land or earth == tlalli,
emblematized earth, darkness and the Below. The nose with its

717

282 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

two nostrils emblematized inhalation and exhalation. The sanc
tity attached to this mystic union of two streams of breath led to
the consecration of the nose by the wearing of a symbolical orna
ment attached to it.

THE HUMAN FORM

expressed " a complete count" and was employed as an image of
the entire constitution, and of the calendar system; each part of
the government administration and calendar sign being identified
with one of the twenty digits, four 'limbs, body and head of the
human form.

THE QUADRUPED

usually the ocelot, or puma, was the symbol of the government of
the Below and nocturnal cult of the earth as opposed to

THE BIRD OR EAGLE

which typified the upper state and diurnal cult of Heaven. Chiefs,
who united dual powers in their persons, wore, as an emblem, the
serpent, or a combination of ocelot-skin and feather ornaments.

THE HAND

expressed per se, in Maya, the numeral ho = five, which was also
the name of a state which invariably consisted of the central
capital and four provinces. As such it was carried as an emblem
of power by the central ruler, as may be seen in the native codices.
The thumb being regarded as the principal or ruling finger, the
chief lord was metaphorically spoken of as the thumb, whilst the
minor lords were entitled fingers = pilli.

THE PYRAMID AND SACRED MOUNTAIN

was primarily an artificial elevation destined to be a place of refuge
in times of inundation; the pyramid ultimately symbolized : (1) the
sacred stable centre of the world and the Four Quarters ; (2) cen
tral power and its four manifestations or elements. The great
pyramid of the ancient City of Mexico which was crowned by two
chapels, respectively containing symbolical images of the two
principles of nature, is a striking illustration of the employment
of the pyramid to express the dual centre (the Above and Below,
etc.) and the quadruple organization of all things which was
expressed not only by the four sides of the structure but by its
four superposed terraces. The fact recorded by Friar Duran, that
718

AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 283

the flight of steps which led to the summit of the pyramid on its
eastern side consisted of 365 steps, and that the annual ceremony
of ascending these, performed by a consecrated individual, " signi
fied the course of the sun in a year," indicates that the pyramid
was also associated with the idea of the quadruplicate division of
time which pervaded the entire calendar system.

It should also be borne in mind that in ancient Mexico the sum
mits of high mountains were regarded as sacred, '; because it was
there that Heaven and Earth met and generated fructifying show
ers." As religious cult developed, the rites performed on the sum
mit of the pyramid or artificial mound were for the purpose of
evoking rain and the renewal of life upon earth, and symbolized
the union of heaven and earth. To the native mind the pyramid
thus represented the consecrated meeting-place of heaven and
earth, the Above and Below, the masculine and feminine elements,
the u divine twins," as well as universal, all-pervading, quadrupli
cate organization. The massive pyramid likewise typified, in an im
pressive manner, the main idea connected with the Middle : that of
stability, immutability, quietude and repose, combined with power.

In some localities a remarkable rock or massive block of stone
was adopted as the mark of the sacred centre and became the
altar on which offerings or sacrifices were made, or the throne on
which the terrestrial central ruler seated himself on ceremonial
occasions and assumed an attitude of absolute repose. It is inter
esting to collate the Nahuatl words Te-otl, divinity or divine lord,
with te-tl = stone and the Maya te-m — stone seat or altar, of
which many carved examples exist in the ruined Central American
cities, and to observe that principal personages, such as are repre
sented on the carved altars and in the middle of the Copau swas
tika, are represented as seated cross-legged, as though this attitude
were specially indicative of repose on the stable centre of the four
quarters. As the natives usually squat or sit on their heels, the
cross-legged attitude is particularly noteworthy in connection with
the omnipresent set of ideas.

THE BOWL OR VASE

was the emblem of earth, the receptacle of fructifying showers,
and of the terrestrial centre. Filled with rain-water, on the surface
of which the radiance of a star — the pole-star — reflected itself,
the bowl was supposed to typify the union of heaven and earth by

719

284 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

means of the divine essence of light and life, proceeding from the
" Heart of Heaven."

THE FLOWER

was another symbol of the earth and of the state and its divisions.
It occurs as a composite flower consisting of a yellow centre sur
rounded by multicolored petals. The usual form is of a flower
with four equal petals, bearing a circle or dot in the centre and one
on each petal, the Middle and Four Quarters being thus expressed.

A closing allusion should be briefly made to the native associa
tion of the square with the earth and the circle with the heaven
and to the influence exerted by these ideas combined with those of
light and darkness upon primitive architecture and symbolical
ornamental designs.

Pointing out that all of the above symbols are but variations
on the fundamental theme of the " Middle, Four Quarters, Above
and Below," I also emphasize the fact that, in ancient America,
language powerfully influenced the choice of symbols, as may
be particularly seen in the case of the serpent, the Nahuatl and
Maya names for which are homonymous with duality and quadru-
plicity.

The origin and meaning of the ancient American symbols of the
cross, the serpent, the tree, etc., are clearly apparent. It remains
to be seen how far this is the case in other countries where the
identical symbols were or are employed, and it is to my fellow
archaeologists that I look for final authoritative statements on this
important subject, in their special lines of research.

Meanwhile I shall present some facts which are accessible to the
general reader and suffice for the purpose of my present investi
gation.

CHINA.

Pole-star worship and determination of time by Ursa Major ex
isted in China from remote antiquity. The Chinese name for the
pole-star is Teen-hwang-ta-tee, literally the great imperial ruler of
the Heaven. In China u the pole-star, round which the entire
firmament appears to turn, ought to be considered as the Sovereign
of the Heavens, and as the most venerated divinity" (G-. Schlegel,
Uranographie Chinoise, p. 524). The sacred central forbidden
enclosure, at Peking, contains a temple of the North Star God. In
the description of the imperial worship held at the winter and sum-
720

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS.

285

mer solstices, in James Edkins' Religion in China (London, 1878,
p. 24) it is stated: '• On the second terrace of the east side,
the tablet of the Sun is placed, and also that of the Great Bear, the
five of the 28 constellations and one for all the other stars." The
following passage shows the origin of the Chinese year :

1. "The months and seasons are determined by the revolu
tion of Ursa Major (the Chinese name for which is Pek-tao the
' Seven Directors'). The tail of the constellation pointing to the
east at nightfall announces the arrival of spring ; pointing to
the south the arrival of summer ; pointing to the west the arrival
of autumn and pointing to the north the arrival of winter. This
means of calculating the seasons becomes more intelligible when
it is remembered that in ancient times the Bear was much nearer
the north pole than now and revolved around it like the hand of a
clock" (Prof. Rob. K. Douglass, China. London, 1887, p. 418).
The Chinese zodiac is represented with the pole-star and circum-
polar constellations in the centre (Astronomy of the Chinese, An
cient China, W. II. Medhurst, Shanghae, 1846).

2. The determination and designation of six directions in
space. In Chinese the six ho or ki designate the limits of space,
the zenith, nadir and four quarters (Mayer's Manual, pp. 306,
312 and 321). tk The term Liu-ho also applies to the six pairs of
cyclical signs and means ' Universe,' that is, Heaven and Earth
[being Above and Below] and the Four Quarters."1

The syllable ho also occurs in the following words which deserve
to be collated with the Maya list : Ho •=. river, hu — lake. C-ho-o —
master, cf. Maya hoi — head. H6-o — resident, cf. Maya ho —
capital. Sho-o = tree, cf. Maya ci-hom = tree. Pih-sho-o =
cypress. Kwo =. country, cf. mouth, symbol for land or below.
K'ow = mouth, etc. Chow = name of ancient metropolis.

3. The conception of the Above and Below — duality. The
zenith is naturally associated with heaven and the nadir with
earth. Heaven is father and earth is mother. Heaven is figured
by a circle and earth by a square. " The marriage of Heaven
and Earth produces all things." The association of heaven with
the male and earth with the female principles is shown by (1)
the injunction : Thou shalt honor thy father as the heaven and thy
mother as the earth." (2) In Pekin, the Emperor, termed "the

JTlie Chinese designation ho, applied to the limits of space, is particularly inter
esting in connection with the 31aya ho and its homonyms.

P. M. PAPERS I 46 721

286 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Son of Heaven," inhabits the "Palace of Heaven" whilst the
Empress inhabits the " Palace of Earth's repose." The sun is
male and the "Temple of the Sun" is situated to the east. The
moon is female and the " Temple of the Moon " is situated to the
west in the sacred enclosure at Pekin. The emblematic color of
the heaven is naturally azure; of the sun, red; of the earth, yel
low ; and of the moon, white. It is thus evident that the cult of
heaven and earth is indissolubly linked to that of the Yang and
Yin, the male and the female principle, and that in China the fol
lowing chains of association concerning duality were formed :

Zenith. Ncadir.

Above. Below.
Tien = Heaven. Tec = Earth.

Father. Mother.

Yang. Yin.

Color : Azure. Yellow.

Emblem : Sun. Moon.

East = place of rising. West, place of setting.

Light. Darkness.

Day. Night.

Personification : the Shang-ti = The Earth-Mother.

Emperor = Above, The Lord of The Empress = Below?

Heaven or Universe.

Earthly representative: the Light The Empress?

Emperor or Sombre Emperor?

An interesting addition to this dual list is the view of a modern
Chinaman, that the Yang and Yin principles refer to positive and
negative electricity ! (Legge). A striking result of the associa
tion of woman with the nadir and earth is the fact that in Thibet,
according to Rockhill, woman is designated as Smanbaor Manba :
" low creature."

THE MIDDLE AND FOUR QUARTERS.

It is well known that the Chinese designate their empire as the
" Middle Kingdom." Another native name for China is " Chung -
ho-a," which I find translated as " the Flower of the Middle." The
empire is likewise designated as " the Four Seas" = ssu-hai and
u the Four Mountains," and it was actually divided by the empe
ror Yaou or Yao (B. C. 2357) into four provinces converging at
the capital, the central enclosure of which was considered as the
centre of heaven and earth. It is extremely significant that, in this
central enclosure there is a temple, consecrated to the god of the
722

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 287

north star = The Imperial Ruler of Heaven, whereas altars only are
dedicated to the sun and moon respectively. The existence in the
central enclosure, or the "Carnation prohibited city," of the Temple
of Earth's Repose, reveals that the idea of stability was asso
ciated with this terrestrial centre. The fact that the Empress and
the female portion of the Imperial family resided in the "Palace of
Earth's Repose" affords an explanation of the possible origin of
deforming the feet of noble women, this being a means of en
forcing comparative repose upon them, in keeping with the sym
bolism of their surroundings.

The most striking structure in this sacred enclosure is "an
artificial mound, nearly one hundred and fifty feet high, having
five summits, crowned with as many temples. Its height allows
the spectator to overlook the whole city, whilst, too, it is itself a
conspicuous object from every direction." This sacred mound or
pyramid actually marks the centre of the empire. From the sur
rounding walls of the sacred city four roads diverge towards the
cardinal points, dividing the capital into four quarters. Each
province was ruled by an official and both province and ruler seem
to have been anciently designated by the term Mountain = Yo or
Kan. A superior official, entitled the " President of the Four Moun
tains" is mentioned as the counsellor of Emperor Yaou in the Shu
King. One name for mountain is yo, another is kan, a word
which resembles k'an r= water and kwan = earth, which forms the
name of the earth mother = Kwau-yin. Without drawing any
hasty conclusions, I merely note the curious fact that the title
" the President of the Four Mountains," must sometimes have
been rendered as Kan and as Yo, and that a variant the name of
"four seas" may well have been u four 7io," or lakes or rivers.
The title kan, meaning mountain or eminence, and the idea of four
rivers flowing from a common centre or spring, may well have de
veloped themselves among Chinese-speaking people. It may be
an odd coincidence only that the word kan =. mountain, should be
so intimately connected with the numeral four in the Chinese title ;
while it is a synonym for four in the Maya, it is also found employed
In the honorific Maya title "Kukul-kau= the divine Kan, and as
a synonym for mountain in certain names of localities in the valley
of Mexico. An interesting but little known fact is that the peak
of the mighty Kulkun mountain in China is designated as the
" King of Mountains, the summit of the earth, the supporter of

723

288 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

heaven and the axis which touches the pole " (Meyer's Conversa-
tions-Lexikon).

I should much like to know whether the name kul-kun is a
variant of kul-kan, and literally signifies u divine mountain." Jn
this case it would strangely resemble the Maya Kukulkau and the
Nahuatl Cul-hua-can, the name of the fabulous recurved mountain
of Aztec tradition. Feeling that I am here treading upon extremely
dangerous ground I shall abandon further comparisons and con
clusions to philologists and Chinese scholars and merely conclude
by stating the certain facts, that in Chinese and Maya alike the
syllable ho seems to be associated with the Middle ; while can is
connected with four-fold division. I may perhaps venture to add
that, in Chinese, Maya and Nahuatl alike, the particles te and ti
seem closely connected with Heaven ; while the Chinese kwan =
earth, offers a certain resemblance to the Nahuatl affix tlan, mean
ing land, and kan, sometimes used for mountain.

Since the Chow Dynasty, the empire was spoken of as having
five instead of four mountains, which leads to the inference that
reference was thus made to the central metropolis also, the most
sacred feature of which was its central artificial mountain or
pyramid. It is obvious that the empire was governed from the
central chief capital and from minor capitals situated in the four
provinces and built on the pattern of Peking. In an extremely
interesting and clever paper1 Mr. James Wickersham has recently
remarked that " the arrangement of cities after the cardinal-points
plan was the rule not only in America but in China " and gives the
following quotations : " Mukden, the metropolis and ancient
capital of Manchuria, was a walled city like Peking. Main
streets ran across the city from gate to gate, writh narrow roads,
called Hu-ting, intersecting them. The palace of the early Man-
chu sovereigns occupies the centre " (The Middle Kingdom,
Williams, vol. i, pp. 192-198). The Manchurian city of Kirin is
also divided into four quarters : " Two great streets cross each

1 -'The Mongol-Mayan Constitution," The American Antiquarian, May and June,
1898. It is with all the more genuine appreciation that I point out how Mr. Wicker-
sham, anticipating my publication of the same conclusion, has recognized that the
Zuiiis, Mexicans and Peruvians as well as the Chinese, were ruled by what he aptly
terms the "Quadriform Constitution," since it has taken me years of hard study to
perceive this common basis. I likewise draw attention to his study in primitive law,
"The Constitution of China (Olympia, 1898)," but must remark that 1 strongly differ
from his conclusions in the recently published Answer to Major Powell's inquiry
'Whence came the American Indians?' " (Tacoma, 1899.)
724

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 289

other at right angles, one of them running far out into the river
on the west supported by piles." Peune, another large city, is
similarly divided. " It consists of two main streets with the chief
market [place] at their crossing. This plan is the rule in the
cities of northern China ; the large cities are walled and divided by
cross streets emerging from the city gates at the cardinal points"
(Coxe's Russia, pp. 316-17). The relation of the central seat of
government to its provinces is thus recorded in the Canon of
Shun.1 "In five years there was one tour of inspection (per
formed by the emperor) and four appearances at court of the
nobles. They set forth a report of their government in words.
This was clearly tested by their works. They received chariots
and robes according to their services."

The order of rotation in wrhich the emperor visited in one year
the capital of each quarter, returning after each absence to the
metropolis, is given as follows: k'In the second month the tour
was to the east. In the fifth month ... to the south. In
the eighth month ... to the west. In the eleventh month
to the north." During the next year the nobles of
the eastern province made their appearance at court, and the
south, west and north provinces followed in turn, it being notice
able that, in each case, the circle started at the east, the place of
rising.

The institution of the calendar by the Emperor Yaou is described
at length in the Shu King.2 Confucius said of this remark
able personage, " Heaven alone is great, but Yaou is able to
imitate Heaven."

The Emperor Yaou " . . . harmonized the various states
of the empire and the black-haired people, oh I how they were
reformed by this cordial agreement. He commanded He and Ho
(officers superintending the calendar and astronomical instruments)
in reverent accordance with the motions of the expansive heavens,
to arrange by numbers and represent the revolutions of the sun
and moon and stars with the lunar mansions and then respectfully
communicate to the people the seasons adapted for labor. He then
separately directed He's younger brother to reside at Yru-e (the
modern Tang-chow in Shan-tung), called the Orient Valley, where

1 Shu King. The Chinese Classics, Legge. Book I, p. 37.

2 Sacred Books of the East, Legge, vol. in, Slid King; also W. II. Medhurst,
Shanghai, 1846.

290 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

he might respectfully hail the rising sun, adjust and arrange the
eastern (and vernal) undertakings and notice the equalization of
days and whether the star (culminating at nightfall) was the
middle constellation of the bird, in order to hit the centre of mid-
spring ; he might also observe whether the people began to dis
perse abroad and whether birds and beasts were beginning to pair.
He commanded He's third brother to reside at the southern border
(the region of Cochin-China) and adjust and arrange the southern
or summer transformation and respectfully notice the extreme
limit of the shadow when the days attain their utmost length and
the star in the zenith that is denominated Fire (heart of Scorpio,
culminated on eve of summer solstice), in order to fix the exact
period of mid-summer, when the people disperse themselves more
widely and the birds and beasts begin to moult and cast their
skins. He then distinctly commanded Ho's youngest brother to
dwell in the west, at a place called the Dark \ralley, where he
might respectfully attend the setting sun and equalize and adjust
the western (or autumnal) completions, notice the equalizations of
the nights and see whether the culminating star was Emptiness
(Beta in Aquarius, which culminated at autumnal equinox which
was the period at the centre of the dark principle in nature) in
order to adjust the mid-autumn, when the people would be more at
ease and the birds and beasts would be sleek and plump. He
further directed Ho's third brother to dwell at the northern region,
called the dismal city, where he might properly examine the reit
erations and alterations and see whether, when the days were
shortest, the culminating star was Pleiades (this culminates in the
evening at winter solstice, which is the extreme of dark principle
in nature and midnight seat of that principle) in order to adjust
midwinter, when the people would remain at home and the birds
and beasts get their down and hair. Thus careful was the sage in
reverently observing heaven and labouring diligently for the people,
in order that his plans might not contradict the designs of heaven
nor the government miss the proper season for human labour." It
is further said that " the bright influence (of Yaou's qualities)
was felt through the four quarters (of the land) and reached to
(heaven) above and (earth) beneath" (Shu King, book i, p. 32).
Legge cites Pritchard's (Savilian Professor, Oxford University)
chart as a proof of the correctness of the chronology which places
Yaou in the 24th century B. C. The precession of the equinoxes
726

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS.

291

was not known in China until more than 2,500 years after the
time assigned to Yaou.

Pausing to renew the foregoing data, it is with particular satis
faction that I point out how clearly they reveal the basis and
origin of the u Quadriform Constitution" and idea of central
government. In China the pole star is designated as the Imperial
Ruler of Heaven and a temple to the God of the North Star stands
in the sacred enclosure which marks the centre of the empire.
The opposite positions assumed by Ursa Major at nightfall divide
the year into four quarters and this quadruplicate division caused
by rotation, assuming absolute dominion over the native mind, is
applied to heaven and earth and pervades every detail of civil and
religious government, as in ancient America.

Forced to recognize that the primitive inhabitants of China and
America derived their first principles of organization from the
identical light-giving source, a fact which also indicates a commu
nity of race and of place of origin, let us now review some data
which prove that the two civilizations must have been separated
and isolated from each other at an extremely remote period of time.

Certain conceptions, common to all primitive people, were shared
by the Chinese and Mexicans, one of these being the belief that the
earth was flat and square. The name for a year in ancient Mexican
was xiuitl, literally, grass, and this was represented in the picture
writings by a bunch of young blades of some sort of grass, pos
sibly maize-shoots. " The earliest written Chinese character for
a year represented a stalk of wheat. . . . In the ancient
work entitled the San Fun, part of which was probably written in
the 23d century B. C., there is evidence that among some of the
aboriginal tribes of China the year, as among the Egyptians and
some of the people of India, was divided into three periods, known
as the grass-springing, tree-reigning and tree-decaying periods.
Under the higher culture of the Chinese these divisions disap
peared and the twelve months became the recognized parts of the
year" (Douglas, China, pp. 269 and 310). Amongst the Mexican
month-names there are also some which allude to such regularly
recurring and impressive natural phenomena as the sprouting of
trees and the appearance of verdure or springing of the maize, etc.
An indication as to what was the most ancient and primitive
method of rotation employed seems afforded by the Chinese de
scription how, for governmental purposes, the five-year period was

292 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

adopted, one year pertaining to the emperor or central ruler and
the following four to the quarters of the empire. An analogous
employment of a quinary period as a means of obtaining a rota
tion of contribution from the four quarters of the empire to its
metropolis, identified with the first day, is discernible in the Mex
ican institution of the macuil-tianquiztli, or five-day market, by
which means the entire year was divided into five-day groups.

A study of the ancient Chinese calendar furnishes, moreover, an
indication of the way in which the numeral 12 came to be recog
nized and adopted by primitive people. It is obvious that the
early astronomers, having determined the length of the year by
observing Ursa Major at nightfall, recognized that, during the
period required for its annual complete revolution around the pole
star, there regularly appeared twelve new moons. In China, at a
remote period, a division of the year into " months was adopted,
the early names of which have, according to the author of the
earliest Chinese dictionary, the Urhye, been lost." " The modern
Chinese year is lunar in its divisions, though regulated by the sun
in so far that New Year's day is made to fall on the first new moon
after the sun enters Aquarius and varies between 21st January and
19th of February" (Douglas, op. cit. p. 258). It would seem
as though some fresh impulse, or institution of moon-cult, had
influenced Shun, Yaou's successor, to reorganize the empire, which
had been simply divided into quarters, and subdivide it into 4X3
— 12 districts.

Another interesting evolution of a numerical system, the origin
of which can be traced to the four positions and seven stars of
Ursa Major, is discernible in the Chinese zodiac. This, the earliest
division of the ecliptic in China, consists of " 28 lunar mansions,
which are grouped together in four classes of seven each, assigned
to the four quarters of heaven" (Legge, vol. in, p. 24, Introduc
tion to Shu-King) . It is to the observation of precisely the same
impressive phenomena that the universal adoption of the numbers
12, 4 and 7 may safely be attributed. The further division, by
Emperor Yu, of the Chinese Empire into five domains or zones,
finds an interesting parallelism in Mexico and Central America.

Mr. Wickersham describes Yu's division in the following concise
manner : "The Imperial domain extended five hundred le in every
direction from the capital, north, south, east and west, and was
therefore one thousand le square, with its sides facing the cardi-
728

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS.

293

nai points ; the domain of the Xobles was an additional territory
five hundred le broad on each of the four sides ; the Peace-secur
ing domain was then added, beyond which came the domain of
Restraint, and at the greatest extremity the Wild domain. By this
arrangement, the sacred center, the capital where the ' Sou of
Heaven' resided, was completely surrounded by loyal officials and
subjects ; the most loyal were nearest the center while at the far
thest extremity were the wild and dangerous tribes and criminals
undergoing the greater banishment. By this square method of dis
posing of the population, the quiet and orderly members of society
were required to reside near the capital, wrhile the turbulent were
placed toward the outer limits, serving to free the center from
turmoil and to net as a barrier to the inroads of outside barbarians."

Among the Zuiiis and Mexicans the spider's web is met with as
an image of the division of their territory into quarters, half-quar
ters and concentric circles.

In Peru a record exists of a system of irrigation by which means
the territory surrounding the capital was divided into alternate
zones of land and water. Mexico and Central America furnish
records too scattered to be compiled here, showing that somewhat
as in China, the territory of the state was divided into the domains
of the rulers, the lords, the people, and the territory of war.

After having duly considered some salient points of fundamental
agreement which are to be found underlying the widely different
later growths of the Chinese and ancient American systems, let us
now examine and analyze some of the most remarkable points of
divergence.

The following tables, ^.placed in juxtaposition, afford an oppor
tunity of recognizing the striking and significant fact that, whereas
the Mexicans and ZULUS classified air, water, fire and earth as
"elements," the Chinese ignored air and identified wood and metal
as their fourth and fifth elements.

MEXICO

ZL'NI.

CHINA.

North ,

Red,

Fire.

Yellow,

Air.

Black,

Water.

West,

Yellow

, Earth.

Blue,

Water.

White,

Metal.

South ,

Blue,

Air.

Red,

Fire.

Red,

Fire.

East,

Green,

Water.

White,

Earth.

Blue,

Wood.

Middle,

Many

colors.

Middle,

All colors.

Yellow,

Earth.

294 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

A deep-seated analogy may, however, be traced between the
Chinese assignment of " wood " to the Middle and the Maya-
Mexican employment of the tree as a symbol of life proceeding
from the centre, stretching above and below and spreading its
branches to the four quarters. It remains to be seen how far the
Chinese assignment of " wood " to the Middle approached the
American tree-symbolism.

The marked differentiation in the assignment of colors to the
cardinal points in the above comparative table leads to the conclu
sion that their choice had been arbitrary and was possibly influ
enced by local environment, the possibility of obtaining certain
pigments in given directions, or by language, the names of certain
colors or elements resembling in sound those of the cardinal
points, etc.1

After studying the above comparative lists it becomes clear that,
whilst the fundamental principle of the system was identical, the
mode of carrying it out was different in China and America, a fact
which indicates independence and isolation at the period when ele
ments and colors, etc., were chosen and assigned to the directions
in space. An analogous instance of divergence is shown in the
following assignment of parts of the body to the cardinal points :

CHINESE.

North,

Kidneys.

West,

Lungs.

South,

Heart.

East,

Liver.

Middle,

7 till 1 "f ll

Stomach.

1 An interesting note in connection with the assignment of color to the cardinal
points in Asia, is given by Schlagintweit (Buddhism in Thibet, 27, 3), who relates
that "the walls of the temples look towards the 4 quarters of heaven and each side
should be painted with its particular colour, viz. : north =green, east= white, south =
yellow, west =red, but this rule is not strictly adhered to; most, indeed, are painted
red." Asa parallel to this I refer to Sahagun's description of the temple of the high-
priest Quetzalcoatl at Tula, which held four chambers facing the cardinal points;
"The east chamber was termed the golden house and was lined with plates of gold,
the west chamber was termed the house of emeralds and turquoises; the south
chamber was inlaid with silver and mother of pearl and the north chamber with red
jasper and shells." Sahagun describes also a second building of the same kind, in
which the decoration of the four rooms was carried out in the same colors, in feather-
mosaic (op. cit. Book x, chap. xxix).

730

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 295

Although it differs in detail, an analogous association of various
parts of the body with the directions in space and the twenty cal
endar-signs, may be seen in a Mexican Codex. In this case, how
ever, it is clear that the origin of this assignment was the natural
association between the "complete finger-and-toe count — a com
plete man — 20 = with the 20 or complete count of the day signs."
I have already produced evidences showing that the human figure
was employed in primitive times to represent " a complete count,
or 20 years." When chieftains were elected for a term of twenty
years and their names were given to their period of office, the full-
length portrait of the chief was sculptured on a stela and he thus
represented, primarily, " a complete count," an epoch (see p. 221).
Portraiture and accompanying inscriptions were obviously later
developments, but the primitive employment of the human form as
a means of expressing a fixed number, is one that claims consid
eration and will undoubtedly lead to a wider comprehension of the
significance of the human form in aboriginal archaic sculpture.
The curious conventionalized representations of Mictlantecuhtli,
in which the body and limbs almost simulate a swastika, have al
ready been discussed, as well as the inference that they symbolized
Polaris and the four positions of Ursa Major = the Middle and
Four Quarters.

The most striking confirmation of this inference is furnished by
Mr. Cushing's account that the Zunis associated the directions in
space with the imaginary form of a quadruped as follows :

ZDNI.

North, Right fore foot.

West, Left fore foot.

South, Right hind leg.

East, Left hind leg.

Middle, Heart.

Zenith, Head.

Nadir, Tail.

It is obvious from this that, to a Zuui, the State and its sub
divisions appear under the allegorical form of a quadruped and I
have traced the identical mode of thought in Mexico and Central

731

296 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

America1 where, owing to linguistic associations, an ocelot is in some
instances employed as a symbol for a State whilst in others the form
of an eagle was adopted for the same purpose (see Appendix I).

To sum up : in ancient America the human form was employed
to represent quadripartite division and the complete finger-and-toe
count =. 20, and as such became emblematic of the quadriform
plan of universal application. Owing to a variety of circumstances
and suggestions arising from language, the figure of a quadruped =
ocelot was adopted as a symbol of the State by some tribes and the
form of an eagle by others, the inference being that the ocelot was
identified with the cult of the earth and night and the eagle with
the cult of heaven and day. While the ocelot and eagle occur in
the codices as representative of two distinct classes or divisions of
the State, there are some interesting and suggestive representations,
to which I shall revert, of figures combining the form and claws
of an ocelot with the wings and head of a bird, evidently symbol
ical of a union of the Above and Below, or Heaven and Earth.

Having furnished the explanation that ancient America affords
of the origin of the primitive employment of the human body, the
quadruped and bird in allegory and the assignment of their various
parts to points in space, it is to Chinese scholars that I appeal for
enlightenment as to the origin and development of the same idea
in China. To me one point of difference between the Chinese and
American list is very striking. In America although the navel was
also regarded as a symbol, the heart, associated with the Middle,
had obviously been recognized as the centre or seat of life, and the
tearing out of the heart had become the salient feature in human
sacrifices. In China the stomach is assigned to the Middle, and
death by disembowelling was customary.

An analysis of the Chinese and Mexican numerical systems
likewise proves that their ultimate development was strikingly

1 The alligator-altar of Copan and the " Great Turtle " of Quirigua, on which four
limbs maybe discerned, are the most remarkable examples of the native employment
of the quadruped figure as a symbol of clan-organization and the great Quadruplicate
Plan. An interesting instance of the association, in China, of the form of a four-
footed animal with numerical divisions is furnished by the following passage from
the Book of Yu, Shoo-King, ed. Legge. Khung-she has said that" Heaven conferred
on Yiithe divine tortoise bearing a book out of the river; on its back were various
numbers, up to nine. Yu arranged them and completed the 9 species. On the head
of the tortoise was 9, on the tail 1, on the left side 3, on the right 7. The shoulders
were formed by 2 and 4, the thighs by 6 and 8."

732

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 297

different, although it is easy to recognize how both might have
arisen from the same source. Thus whilst the Mexican and Cen
tral American calendar (and social organization) is based on the
combination of 20 characters with 13 numerals, the Chinese 4i took
two sets of 12 and 10 characters respectively and combined them."
The outcome of the combination of 20 with 13 affords a marked
contrast to that of 12 with 10. In the Mexican calendar, as I
have shown, there were ftxed periods of 5 days (associated with
the Middle and Four Quarters) and of 20 days, the latter being
k' one complete count" of days, based on the primitive finger-and-
toe count. In the Mexican social organization there were 4 prin
cipal and 16 minor clans of people, known by 20 signs. Each of
these in turn was subdivided into 13 categories associated with the
directions in space. By mentioning a sign and a numeral, up to
13, the exact subdivision of a clan was clearly designated while
the direction of its residence, as regards the capital, was likewise
conveyed. A day was associated with each of these 20 clans and
their respective 13 subdivisions, and the unit of time produced by
the combination of the 20 day-signs and 13 numerals was the
period of 260 days, which held 4 X 65 days and was approxi
mately equivalent to nine lunations and to the period of human
gestation. The 260-day period, as will be more clearly shown in
my monograph on the Mexican Calendar System, constituted the
religious year of the " Sons or Lords of Night" in their cult of the
Moon, the Nocturnal Heaven, Earth and the Female principle.

Simultaneously with this lunar calendar, in which each moon had
a different name, a civil or solar calendar was employed consist
ing of 365 days, divided into 17 periods of 20 and 1 period of 25
days. These years bore the names of four different signs in rota
tion combined with 13 numerals.1 The cycles, thus produced, con
sisted of 4 X 13 = 52 years, 20, or a -' complete count" of which,
produced the great cycle of 1040 years.

Totally different from this numerical system is that of the Chinese,
who " divided the year into 12 months of 29 and 30 days each and

1 As Prof. E. B. Taylor has aptly pointed out: " By accident the [Mexican] Calen
dar may be exactly illustrated with a modern pack of cards laid out in rotation of
the four suits, as an ace of hearts, 2 of spades, 3 of diamonds, 4 of clubs, 5 of
hearts, etc. . . . This system [of combining signs with numerals] is similar to
that of central southwestern Asia where, among the Mongols, Tibetans and Chinese,
etc., series of signs are thus combined to reckon years, months and days . . .
Humboldt makes this comparison in his ' Vue des Cordilteres, p. 212" . . .(Article
" Mexico," Ency. Brit.).

733

298 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

as these periods represent with sufficient exactness the lunar month,
it follows that the new moon falls on the 1st of every month and
that on the 15th the moon is at its full. The month is thus as
sociated with the moon and is called by the same name and written
with the same hieroglyphic . . . The Chinese also divide the year
by seasons and recognize 8 main divisions and 16 subsidiary ones,
which correspond to the days on which the sun enters the 1st and
15th degrees of a zodiacal sign . . ." (Douglas, China, p. 269).
Whilst it is customary in China for years to be designated at times
by the Neen-haou or title of an emperor and an event to be alluded
to as having occurred in such or such a year of a certain ruler's
reign, the mode of computing years is by reckoning by sexagenary
cycles. According to native historians this system was introduced
by the emperor Hwang-te in the year 2637 B. C. which was the
first year of the first cycle, and it has continued in use until the
present day. In this system a group of ten characters, termed
the "celestial stems" and associated with the male principle; is
combined with a group of twelve characters, named the " terres
trial branches " and associated with the female principle. An un
broken series of sixty-year cycles have thus been formed, in the
seventy-sixth of which the Chinese are now living. According to
Biot, the calendar instituted by Hwang-te was a day-count only,
and year-cycles were not in use until after the Christian era, hav
ing been introduced from India.

There are indications which will be more fully discussed further
on, showing that the primitive day-count consisted of the seven-
day period, each day being consecrated to one of the seven bright
stars of Ursa Major, called the " Seven Regulators."

It is well known that Taotiism was founded by Laou-tsze, who
was a contemporary of Confucius and thus "lived in the sixth
century before Christ, a hundred years later than Buddha and a
hundred years earlier than Socrates. A mystery hangs over Laou-
tsze's history . . . and there is the possibility that he was a for
eigner, or perhaps a member of an aboriginal frontier tribe "
(Legge).

The Shoo-king, the national book of history edited by Confucius,
enables us to follow the development of the state religion and gov
ernment, the basis of which was Heaven and its imperial ruler, the
pole-star. The almost mythical emperor Yaou, whose reign began
in B. C. 2357, u imitated Heaven, harmonized the various states of

734

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 299

the empire and divided it into four quarters." His successor, Shun,
extended its organization, but it was Yii, the third ruler, in the
thirteenth year of his reign (B. C. 1121), who, acknowledging his
ignorance of them ''went to inquire of Ke-tsze" about "the grec^t
plan of the 9 classifications and the arrangement of the invaria
ble principles." It is also stated in the Shoo-King, that it was
'' Heaven [who] gave to Yii the great plan and the 9 classifications,
so that the invariable principles were arranged, consisting of the

5 elements, the 8 regulations, and the 5 arrangers."

In China the day is divided into periods equivalent to 120 min
utes — 2 hours. "In speaking of these periods, however, the
practice which was originally introduced into China by the Mongols,
of substituting for the twelve stems, the names of the twelve ani
mals which are supposed to be symbolical of them, is commonly
adopted. Thus the 1st period, that between 11 p. m. and 1 a. m.,
is known as the Rat, period 2 as the Ox, 3 Tiger, 4 Hare, 5 Dragon,

6 Serpent, 7 Horse, 8 Sheep, 9 Monkey, 10 Cock, 11 Dog, 12
Boar. The night is divided into five watches, each of two hours
duration " (Douglas, China, p. 296).

The ancient Mexican priest-astronomers marked three divisions
of the night by burning incense in honor of certain stars, after
dusk, at midnight and at break of day.

The mention of the introduction into China of the Mongolian
hour-computation leads to a consideration of the origin of what is
known as the Chinese civilization. It is, of course, impossible to do
more here than touch upon the various and opposite views held on
this important question by leading European and Chinese scholars.
On the one hand, "the existence of the Chinese civilization in
the east of Asia, separated from early centres by the whole width
of Asia and intervening trackless deserts, has seemed a problem
to many students and led to the conclusion of its sporadic growth,
an idea which is fostered by Chinese historians." (See Douglas on
Chinese Culture and Civilization, 1890.) On the other hand, it is
maintained that the Chinese entered China from Tartary and were
emigrants from Babylonia who abandoned their country when
Xakhunte, king of Susiana, conquered Babylon in 2295 B. C.

According to Legge, the Chinese came through central Asia about
2200 B. C. and founded colonies on the banks of the Yellow river
and its tributaries. These colonists founded a Middle Kingdom
in China, a federation of states with a chief supreme ruler, on the

735

300 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

pattern of Babylonia. They introduced the art of writing and es
tablished a calendar with a year of 360 days and an intercalary
month.

It is stated that the names of the five planets of the Chinese,
besides the Sun and Moon, were called by the same names as in
Babylon. (See Edkins op. tit., also The old Babylonian characters
and their derivatives, Terrien de Lacouperie, Babylonian and
Oriental Record, March, 1888.) -Some authorities are inclined to
consider Chinese astronomy as deriyed from the Chaldean ; whilst
others have instituted comparisons between it and the Hindoo
system. The results of the latter line of investigation are set
forth by J. F. Davis in the following passage of his work on the
Chinese (London, 1836, vol. ir.p. 304) : " A comparison between
the ancient system of the Chinese and of Hindoo astronomy is
rendered somewhat perplexing by the fact that, while there are
some points of resemblance there are others in which they essen
tially differ. Both of them have twenty-eight lunar mansions and
a cycle of sixty years, but a careful observation detects some im
portant distinctions : the Hindoo cycle is a cycle of Jupiter while
that of the Chinese is a solar cycle, and the twenty-eight constel
lations of the Hindoos are nearly all of them equal divisions of
the great circle, consisting of about 13° each, while the Chinese
constellations are extremely unequal, varying from 30° to less than
1°. The author's father, in conjunction with Sir William Jones
and Messrs. Colebrook and Bentley, proved that the Hindoo as
tronomy did not go farther than the calculation of eclipses and
some other changes with the rules and tables for performing the
same. Besides their lunar zodiac of twenty-eight mansions, the
Hindoos (unlike the Chinese) have the solar, including twelve signs
perfectly identical with ours, and demonstrating, in that respect, a
common origin."

As we know from Herodotus, the Egyptians had a week of seven
days and it is remarkable that the Hindoos had anciently the
same, the planetary names being given to the days in exactly
the same order as among ourselves, except that Friday was the first.
The Chinese reckon five planets to the exclusion of the, sun and
moon, but they give the name of one of their twenty-eight lunar
mansions successively to each day of the year in a perpetual ro
tation, without regard to the moon's changes ; so that the same
four out of the twenty-eight invariably fall on our Sundays and
736

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 301

constitute, as it were, perpetual Sunday letters. A native Chinese
first remarked this odd fact to the author, and on examination it
proved perfectly correct.

To the above it may be well to add the following comparison
between the Chinese, Tibetan and Indian systems : "The Tibet
ans received astronomical science from India and China .
the Chinese taught them the science of divination. Both systems
are based upon a unit of sixty years, differing, however, in
modes of denominating years. In these cycles of sixty years,
when numbered according to the Indian principle, each year has a
particular name; but in the Chinese method the names used in the
Chinese duodecimal cycle are used five times, coupled with the
five elements or their respective colors, each of the latter intro
duced in the series twice in immediate succession" (Schlagintweit,
Buddhism in Thibet, p. 27). According to Humboldt, " the Tzihi-
chen, or public calculators of Lhassa take pride in the fact that
years of the same name only return about every two centuries.
They combine 15 signs: five masculine, five feminine and five
neuter, with twelve signs of the zodiac " (Monuments des peuples
de 1'Arnerique i, p. 386).

With regard to the ancient connection between China and India
it is well to recall the well-known fact that Buddhism did not enter
China from India until the first century of the Christian era and
had a prolonged struggle for existence and influence in the country
during several centuries.

The Buddhist missionaries introduced the mode of calculating

cycles of years into China, according to Biot, who states that the
primitive calendar of the Chinese, instituted by Hwang-te, the
first king of the " Flowery laud," was a day-count only.

Let us briefly enumerate some bare facts bearing upon the age
and development of the state, religion and government of ancient
China. In 2697 B. C. Hwang-te (the Babylonian?) erected a
temple to the honor of Shaug-te, the deity associated with the
earliest traditions of the Chinese race. Upon the authority of a
Chinaman of the present day it is stated that "the word Shang-te
means supreme ruler ; but, as it is not lawful to use this name
lightly, Chinamen usually name the supreme ruler by his residence,
which is Tien— heaven" (Edkins, op. cit. p. 71).

An extremely instructive light is thrown upon the Taouist con
ception of a supreme being or ruler, by the following episode
p. M. PAPKRS i 47 737

302 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

related by Mr. Edkins in his "• Religion in China" (p. 109). kt I
met [in 1872] on one occasion a schoolmaster from the neighbor
hood of Chapoo. . . . The inquiry was put to him, \Yho is
the Lord of heaven and earth? He replied that he knew none
but the pole-star, called in the Chinese language Teen-hwang-ta-
te, the great imperial ruler of heaven. It was stated to him that
it was a matter very much to be regretted that he should hold such
views as this of the Supreme Being."

In this connection and with special reference to the title Tien =
heaven, employed by the Chinese in addressing the supreme ruler,
I must quote T. de Lacouperie's opinion that the Akkadian name =
Din-gira and symbol for God, the eight-pointed star, was the ori
gin of Ti, a Chinese character with the same meaning and sound.
Mr. C. J. Ball (The New Akkadian Proceedings of the Society of
Biblical Archaeology) explains the Akkadian Din-gira as composed
of di = to shine and gira = heaven and that thus the Accadian
name for God is " the shining one of heaven," which explains why
the ideogram is a star. According to Mr. K. Douglas (p. 171)
"Mr. Ball has practically demonstrated that the Chinese and
Akkadian are the same tongue and that everywhere in China we
are reminded of that great centre of civilization in Babylonia."

An investigation of the Taouist religion reveals that it consists
chiefly of star- worship, stars being deemed "divine." "Among the
liturgical works used by the priests of Taou, one of the common
est consists of prayers to Tow-moo, a female divinity supposed to
reside in the Great Bear. A part of the same constellation is
worshipped as a male spirit under the name of Kwei-sing" (Ed-
kins).

A name closely resembling the latter in sound, Tseih-ching, and
meaning the " Seven Regulators " is now applied to the Sun, Moon,
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In ancient times,
however, according to native authorities, u this term was used to
designate the seven bright stars of Ursa Major which subsequently,
by an astrological device, were associated with the seven planets ;
so, that, by metonymy, the latter became the established meaning.1"

i The following passages contain interesting evidences of the ancient application
of the number seven to tribal organization in China. "In the time of the Suy dynasty
Manchuria went by the name of Mo-ho in China . . . the people being then
divided into seven tribes, . . . Towards the end of the eleventh century one Yang-
ko was elected as their chief . . . and he organized something of a regular gov
ernment throughout the various tribes of Jou-tchi or Nio-tchi's and collected taxes

738

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 303

The association of the term "Regulators" with Septentriones
is particularly interesting because the seven-day period has been
employed in China from time immemorial, the seventh day being
invariably marked by the ancient character mih, which means
"quiet, secret or silent." In the modern Chinese almanacs and
astrological works " the mih days are marked by the four constel
lations which correspond among the seven planets to the principal
one among them, the Sun" (cf. Wylie, On the Knowledge of a
weekly Sabbath in China, op. cit. p. 86). I am strongly tempted
to refer the origin of the Chinese mill or quiet day, on which rest
was generally observed, to that remote period of time when, to
primitive observers, one of the stars in Ursa Major would have
appeared more closely associated with immovability and nearer the
polar axis than its companions < see pp. 20 and 21).

If we pause here to review the preceding data we are particularly
struck at the unanimity of evidence establishing that even the
most ancient form of civilization and religion was not indigenous
to China, but was carried there by colonists from distant parts,
presumably from Babylonia. The latter conclusion finds a strong
support in the undeniable fact that during subsequent centuries a
steady stream of emigration has carried colonists of different
nationalities into the heart of China.

Buddhism entered China from India in the first century of the
Christian era. Alexander Wylie tells us that "according to the
testimony of one of the stone tablets in the synagogue at Kai-
fung foo,the Israelites first entered China during the Han dynasty"
and we are further told in the letters of the Jesuits that "they
came during the reign of Miug-ti (A. D. 58-75) from Si-yih, i. e.
the western regions. It appears by all that can be gathered from
them that this western country is Persia and that they came by
Khorasan and Samarcand. They have many Persian words in
their language and they long preserved a great intercourse with
that country" (The Israelites in China, Wylie's Chinese Re
searches, Shanghai, 1897).

Some other interesting facts related by Wylie deserve mention
here. In translating the name of Jehovah into Chinese, the Israel-

from them. The highest of his officers were all styled po-k-eih-lee and were distin-
gidshed by the names of the sun, planets and 28 constellations of the Zodiac. Every
five, every ten and every hundred men had their special officers. . . . From the
chief of five to the chief of ten thousand, each trained his dependents in military art.
. . . Wylie: On the origin of the Manchus (Chinese Researches, p. 244).

739

304 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

ites in China, to the present day, say Teen, "just as the scholars
of China do when they explain their term Sliang-te." We thus
observe a growing practice in western Asia, among the Hebrews, of
designating Jehovah as the God of Heaven and sometimes as
Heaven. In Chinese history distinct mention is made of a foreign
sect distinguished as the " worshippers of Heaven," spoken of as
existing in China at the beginning of the sixth century. Wylie
has surmised that the Hebrews were thus designated and remarks
" that this name, as the designation of a foreign sect, is the more
remarkable inasmuch as the state ritual of China lias designated
the Supreme by the name of Heaven, from the earliest times down
to the present day."

It is a curious reflection that it may possibly have been due to a
gross misconception of the Hebrew religion on the part of the
Chinese and a supposed identity of worship that caused the Israel
ites to be treated with such tolerance and hospitality in China that
their colony situated in the heart of the country still exists to the
present day. It is, in fact, related of the Dowager Empress Ling,
in the first half of the sixth century, that she lk abolished the vari
ous corrupt systems of religious worship, excepting that of the
foreign tien-spirit." A strange insight into the Chinese view of
the Christian religion is likewise afforded by the following native
documents cited by Wylie : "Now Jesus, the Lord of Heaven, is
worshipped by the Europeans. They say that this is the ancient
religion of Ta-tsin (Syria)."

The following remarkable passages occur on the famous Nesto-
rian tablet, dated A. D. 781, which eulogizes the propagation of
the "Illustrious [Christian] Religion" in China. This tablet was
discovered by the Jesuit fathers in 1625 and, after its authenticity
had been violently assailed, Wylie's painstaking researches have
now vindicated its genuineness.1 The following extracts are from
the preface engraved upon it and composed by King-tsing, a priest
of the Syrian Church :". . . Our eternal, true lord God. . . . He
appointed the cross as the means of determining the four cardinal
points, he moved the original spirit and produced the two prin
ciples of nature ; the sombre void was changed and heaven and
earth were opened out ; the sun and moon revolved and day and
night commenced ; having perfected all inferior objects, he then
made the first man . . . the illustrious and honorable Mes-

JThe Nestorian Tablet in Si-ngan-foo (p. 24, Chinese Researches. Shanghai, 1897).
740

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 305

siah, veiling his true dignity, appeared in the world as a man . . .
a bright star announced the felicitous event [of his birth]
he fixed the extent of the eight boundaries. . . . As a seal
[his disciples] hold the cross, whose influence is reflected in every
direction uniting all without distinction. As they strike the wood
the fame of their benevolence is diffused abroad ; worshipping to
wards the east they hasten on the way to life and glory
they do not keep slaves, but put noble and mean all on an equality ;
they do not amass wealth but cast all their property into the com
mon stock."

Referring the matter to oriental scholars for further discus
sion I merely note here the astonishing fact that in China, in the
seventh century of our era, the supreme God of the Hebrews and
Christians was spoken of as the God of Heaven, or Heaven, that
He is credited with having created the two principles of nature
besides heaven and earth and instituted the cross as " a means of
determining the cardinal points."

It is likewise strange to find the " Heeu or Toen foreigners"
credited in a sixteenth-century native cyclopaedia, with having
introduced into China a system of astronomy denominated the
" Four Heavens," and obviously based on a quadruplicate division
of the Heaven similar to the division of the empire instituted by
Yaou (Wylie, Israelites in China, op. eft. p. 19).

The current Chinese name for Christians has been " Cross-wor
shippers," and it is odd to note that the ancient Chinese seem to
have regarded the symbolism of the Christian cross as closely
identical with that of their swastika, and to have concluded that
the foreign " Heaven" religion rested on the same basis as theirs.

Referring the reader to Wylie's valuable researches and Edkins'
Religion in China for information concerning the establishment of
colonies of Manicheaus, Mohammedans and of successive Chris
tian missions, etc., in China, I shall but quote the following pas
sage from Marco Polo's travels (pp. 167 and 168) because it shows
how the doctrine of the quadruplicate division of all things, celes
tial and terrestrial, led to a broad tolerance of opinion in the famous
Tartar prince, Kubla Khan, who, in 1260, at Kanbalu = Peking,
honored the Christian festivals. " And he observed the same at
the festivals of the Saracens, Jews and idolaters. Upon being
asked his motive for this conduct, he said : ' There are four great
Prophets who are reverenced and worshipped by the different

711

306 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

classes of mankind. The Christians regard Jesus Christ as their
divinity ; the Saracens, Mahomet ; the Jews, Moses ; and the idol
aters Sagomombarkan (Buddha) the most eminent amongst their
idols. I do honor and show respect to all of the four, and in
voke to my aid whichever of them is in truth supreme in heaven.' "
This attitude of mind and that of the Chinese towards the Chris
tian Cross can only be fully understood and appreciated when it
is realized that their "imperial ruler of Heaven" was the pole-
star and that the Ursa Major described each year the sign of a
cross in the heaven which ever impressed upon them quadruplicate
division and differentiation and the union of four in one. It is
doubtlessly owing to the same reason that the Chinaman of to
day finds it possible to believe in, at once, the three great na
tional religions which exist in China. Eclkins has explained that,
whereas " Confucianism speaks to the moral nature, Taouism is
materialistic and Buddhism is metaphysical; thus, they are sup
plemental to each other and are able to co-exist without being mu
tually destructive" (op. cit. p. 60). Somewhat apart from these
three state religions and embodying the most ancient ideas and
traditions of the race, exists the elaborate and solemn " Impe
rial worship," the study of which Edkins designates as " spec
ially interesting because it takes us back to the early history of
the Chinese people and introduces us to many striking points of
comparison with the patriarchal religion of the Old Testament and
with the worship of the kings of Nineveh, Babylon and Egypt."
The same authority states that " the account given by Herodotus
of the religion of the ancient Persians shows that it consisted in
much the same usages as those now found in Chinese Imperial
worship" (op. cit. pp. 6, 22, 18 and 30). In the preceding pages
it has been shown that the fundamental principles of the primitive
religions of China and America were identical, but that their sub
sequent stages of development or evolution were strikingly diver
gent. The following study of certain details connected with the
u Imperial worship" brings out a marked differentiation in the
Chinese and Mexican cult of heaven and earth.

The altar of Heaven at Peking consists of three circular marble
terraces, the uppermost of which is paved with eighty-one stones
arranged in circles. It is on a round stone in the centre of these
circles that the Emperor kneels and is considered to occupy the
centre of the earth. In the worship of Heaven, offerings are made
742

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 307

to the heavenly bodies, the Sun, Moon, the Pole-star, Great Bear,
five planets and twenty-eight constellations. The worship at the
altar of Earth consists of offerings to the mountains, rivers and
seas.

This arrangement is strikingly unlike that of the ancient Mexi
cans, who associated the sun only with the Above, the male
principle and the blue heaven, and worshipped the nocturnal
heaven, the moon and stars, with the earth, darkness and the fe
male principle.

It is interesting to note the marked effect, produced by the two
different modes of classification, upon the subsequent development
of the state religious of China and Mexico. In the latter country
where the contrast of light and darkness and of the duality of
nature seems to have been most powerfully felt, the gradual insti
tution, on a footing of equality of a diurnal masculine and nocturnal
feminine cult or of a separate sun and moon worship, led to the
formation of two equally powerful castes of priest-astronomers
who devised their respective calendars and cults and ultimately
stood in open rivalry and antagonism towards each other, as chil
dren of heaven and light: sun worshippers ; and children of earth
and darkness : moon worshippers. In China, as the cult of earth
was subordinate from the first and all heavenly bodies were in
cluded in the worship of Heaven, there was no opportunity for
any rivalry to develop in the superior caste of astronomers who
jointly ruled, instituted their calendar and altered it under influ
ences emanating from India.

Heaven and Earth were jointly worshipped at the same altar
until A. D. 1531, when it was decreed that there should be separate
altars and that the worship of P^arth should be separately con
ducted (Edkius). At the same time, while the Emperor acts as the
high-priest of Heaven, we find associated with him, from remote
antiquity, the Empress, the representative of the Earth-mother.

The fact that the roll of Chinese emperors records heavenly and
earthly, light and sombre, emperors, and that empresses have re
peatedly occupied the throne, seems to indicate that, in remote
antiquity, a male and a female line of rulers, personifying the dual
principles of nature, alternately assumed prominence in power.
This natural outgrowth of the cult of heaven and earth, which has
its parallel in Mexico, seems to afford an explanation of the usur
pation and retention of power exercised by the present Empress

743

30# KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

of China, who is probably ruling in her own right, as the repre
sentative of the earth or dark principle. As such she is the exact
equivalent to the ancient Mexican Cihua-coatl, or " Woman-ser
pent;" and modern China supplies us with an episode in the devel
opment of the fundamental set of ideas it holds in common with
ancient America, closely resembling the historical dissension which
led in ancient Mexico to a separation of the two cults and the
establishment of two separate governments, under their respective
male and female rulers.

Although the difference in primitive Chinese and Mexican defi
nitions of heaven and earth worship is evidently accountable for
this fact, it is nevertheless interesting to note that it was in A. D.
1531 only that the Chinese cult of heaven a«id earth separated and
the process of disintegration began to be set into activity. From
an evolutionary point of view, the imperial religion of China stands
to-day at a far less advanced stage of development than the prehis
toric Mexican state religion. This circumstance might be passed
over without comment did it not strikingly coincide with the unde
niable fact that the essentially inorganic and monosyllabic Chinese
language stands far lower in the scale of linguistic development than
the incorporative and polysynthetic American languages, the most
perfected types of which are the Maya and the beautiful and refined
Nahuatl which abounds in delicate metaphors and formulas of
exquisite politeness, indicative of the high degree of culture and
antiquity of the native race.

If the preceding comparative study of the Chinese and an
cient Mexican civilizations be briefly summarized, the result is as
follows : Both civilizations alike rest on a foundation of pole-
star worship and the set of ideas which naturally proceed from
this i. e., central impartial power extending in constant rota
tion to the four quarters, figured by the swastika, and the recog
nition of the all-pervading duality of .nature. These primitive
concepts and their inevitable outgrowths, which might naturally
occur to human beings of the same grade of intellect in similar
conditions and circumstances and be most powerfully impressed
upon the mind of man in circumpolar latitudes beside a few resem
blances in names, which I shall proceed to point out, are nearly
all that the Chinese and ancient Mexicans may be stifely said
to have had in common. At a date obviously anterior to 2356
B. C., when they were formulated, the Chinese had made definitions
744

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 309

Of heaven and earth and of the five elements which radically differ
from those of the ancient Mexicans and Mayas.

The Chinese numerical system or calendar, though equally based
on rotation, and known to have been modified by contact with In
dia, is essentially different from the American. When carefully
compared it must be acknowledged that the Mexican is by far the
more complex and highly developed, and the same may be said of
the social organization, which was controlled by the calendar. A
comparison between the Chinese and American languages in gen
eral proves, moreover, that they differ not only in sound, but in
form and in grade of development, the Chinese being the lower in
the scale. To the above divergences we must add the fact that
each people evolved distinct national customs and costumes, foods
and drinks, industries, arts and forms of architecture, so markedly
characteristic as to be clearly distinguishable.

In conclusion a few words about the swastika in China (ouan).
Its Chinese name is wan, which signifies " ten thousand," or " all,"
also " many," a great number. At the time of the Empress Wu
(A. D. 684-704) the swastika in a circle signified "the sun ;" half
a swastika in the circle "the moon," and the plain circle "the
star." Deferring comment I emphasize here the fact that the
word wan resembles kwan = equal earth or land, and that it signi
fies an entity composed of ten thousand parts. A proof that the
wan was also associated with the idea of time is given by the
modern use of the Chinese swastika to signify " long life," "many
years," i. e., a complete life, a complete cycle of years.

A prolonged study of the most ancient civilization of America,
which centred in Mexico and Central America and thence spread
northward and southward, has so deeply convinced me of its great
antiquity, isolation and prolonged period of independent evolution
that, when Asiatic origin and influence are discussed, I am tempted
to take the national food-plant of America, the maize, and, placing
it beside the rice-plant of China, invite comparisons to be made
between them.

JAPAN.

It is a curious fact that, although it is recognized that the
junks which have been repeatedly driven by storms upon the Pa
cific coast have generally been Japanese, no searching compar
ison between the culture of ancient America and that of Japan

745

310 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

has as yet been published ; although it is believed by many that
it may have been to the occupants of the wrecked junks that the
American race owed its civilization. The curious idea seems to
prevail among some writers, that purely Chinese influence was
conveyed by Japanese fishermen and sailors to the dwellers on
American soil. It does not seem to be sufficiently recognized that
the differences between Japanese and Chinese civilizations are as
great as that between their different languages and writings, and
that direct influence derived from Japan, for many centuries back
would have left traces so characteristic as to be easily distinguished
from the effects of direct influence from China.

In the third century of the Christian era the Japanese empire
was founded on a plan derived from Corea and soon became known
to the Chinese and dwellers on the main land as Dschi-Poennkwo,
or Zipanco, the "land of the east, or of the rising sun." The
Japanese themselves, however, regarded their empire as the "great
centre of the world," i. e. a " Middle Kingdom." The mythical
birthplace of the Japanese race and the cradle of its civilization
is said to have been the island of the Congealed Drop, which was
formerly at the North Pole, but subsequently removed to its pres
ent position. How this happened is not told.1

The most superficial examination shows that the fundamental
scheme of the Japanese empire was the same as that of China
and other Asiatic countries. Its centre was the island Hon-shiu,
Hondo or Nippon, on which was situated the ancient Fu or capital,
named Yedo ; the modern Tokio in the vicinity of Fusiyama, the
sacred mountain and reputed centre of the world. The entire land
or Han was originally divided into five provinces collectively named
the Go-kinai (the word go like the Maya ho, signifying five), the
territorial divisions and presumably consisting of four quarters and
the capital. Light is thrown upon the extent of this quinary or
ganization by the fact that, in ancient Japan, time was divided
into five-day periods, by official days of rest, which fell on the
1st, 6th, llth, 16th, 21st, and 26th clays of each month. The

i(The Religion of Japan, Wm. Elliott Griffis. London, 1895, p. 67 and note 9.)
" This curious agreement between the Japanese and other ethnic traditions, in locat
ing Paradise, the origin of the human family and of civilization at the north pole,
has not escaped the attention of Dr. W. F. Warren, President of Boston University,
who makes extended reference to it in his suggestive book, "Paradise Found, The
Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole. A Study of the Prehistoric World.
Boston, 1885."
740

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS.

computation of time by cycles, which will be treated further in a
separate monograph, also prevailed in Japan, as might be ex
pected, since this method was amain feature of the definite scheme
on which the entire empire was founded.

In accord with this plan the population wras divided into four
classes, consisting of the Haimin — the people ; the warriors or
Samurai, the Kazoku, literally the flower of families, the nobility.
All members of the imperial family formed a fourth caste and
above all stood the Emperor, the central ruler, the divine descendant
of the sun-goddess Amaterasu. Evidences that an extension and
fresh territorial division of the empire took place at one time seem
preserved in the ancient Japanese name for Japan : Oya-shima =
the eight islands. It is likewise related that the Japanese crea
tors, Izanajo and Izanami, built, in the centre of the world, an oc
tagonal palace around a central pillar, the octagonal form having
reference to the eight holy corners or points, the " Hak-kaku," or
the cardinal points and half cardinal points. Jt is impossible to
overlook the fact that by a similar method, but by means of four
larger and four smaller rays, the field of the Mexican calendar
star is divided into eight equal portions. It is a well-known fact
that, in 1854, Japan was practically governed by two rulers:
the Mikado or Tenno, of divine or " heavenly," descent, who led
so secluded an existence that he was becoming a shadowy and
invisible ruler, and the Shogun, the civil governor, who had be
come the terrestrial ruler par excellence, and whose power was
in the ascendant. This state of affairs affords a most interesting
object lesson, teaching how ancient empires gradually become di
vided and disintegrated under dual government and under the
influence of rival cults. The ancient state religion or "• Imperial
worship " of Japan, the Shinto, was becoming as obsolete as the
worldly power of its high-priest the Mikado, next to the growing
ascendancy of Buddhism, supported by the Shogunate. The orig
inal meaning of the Shinto sacred symbols appears to be lost.
The mirror, placed on the altar, usually constituted the only visible
sacred emblem. Another was the sword. It is claimed that the
swastika came into Japan with Buddhism, but this is a point which
demands a serious investigation of competent specialists. The
above data, which are absurdly inadequate to the interest and im
portance of Japan, the seat of the most intellectual and progres
sive culture of Asia, are sufficient to show that in Japan, where the

312 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

swastika is found, the quadruplicate state organization and fun
damental plan were also carried out. My full purpose will only be
fulfilled when the present deficient notes shall have stimulated the
enquiry and research of students and Japanese scholars and led
to the publication of all traces extant of the most ancient scheme
of organization, government and calendar, as compared with those
of ancient America.

As it is maintained that the Chinese and other eastern Asiatic
people did not originate, but received their civilization from Baby
lonia, or another ancient centre, 'situated in western Asia, it
obviously becomes an imperative necessity to carry the present
investigation across the Asiatic continent into the heart of the
Euphratean valley.

INDIA.

Being one of the ancient centres of civilization from which the
Chinese are said to have derived theirs, India, the country where
the swastika abounds, first arrests our attention. In support of
the assertion I have already advanced, that the primitive symbol is
always found accompanied by a set of ideas almost as ancient as
itself, I have pleasure in transcribing the following detached but
instructive and suggestive extracts from my note-book.

The fair Arya or Aryans, after about 2,000 B. C., penetrated
India from the northwest. Arya means " those who command"
or " the venerable." The name Hindu or Sindu was given to the
Indian Aryans. Our knowledge of Hindu art begins in the third
century B. C. and none of the present popular forms of Hindu
religion are presumed to be earlier than the ninth century A. D.
" It is well known that the Brahman system and faith were not
developed by the Hindus till they had conquered the Ganges,
Western and Southern India and there is no trace of this tradition
or even of Brahma as a deity in the Vedas." . . .

" The supreme god of antiquity was Indra . . . next to and
above whom was the mysterious god Varuna, the creator, who
gave eternal laws which god and men were obliged to follow. He
showed the stars their paths and gave each creature his qualities
. . . He is the sun by day and the stars at night" . . . From
these statements the duality of the creator and his power over
both light and darkness alike, stand out clearly.

Another form of the supreme being was the sun god Surya, who
748

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 313

was also named Savitri, the generator, Pushan = the feeder and
Mithra= the light-god, who is called the watcher and ruler of
the world and was associated with the wheel, which is termed "the
most ancient symbol of divine power and dominion.1"

u In India the wrheel wras, moreover, connected with the title of
a chakrayartin (from chakra — a wheel), the title meaning a su
preme ruler or universal monarch, who ruled the four quarters of
the world and on his coronation he had to drive his chariot or wheel
to the four cardinal points to signify his conquest of them" (Wm.
Simpson, Quarterly statement of Palestine Expl. Fund, 1895,
p. 84) . It is significant that '' Mithra," the god of the wheel, who
was, as I shall show later on, likewise associated with the serpent,
is represented with a chariot pulled by seven horses and thus to
find the idea of centrifugal power, combined with the numeral
seven and the conception of central rulership extending to the four
quarters.

While the above passages afford an interesting insight into the
ancient significance and symbolism of the chariot, the use of which,
with that of the throne was, originally, exclusively confined to the
central supreme ruler, they also furnish a curious parallelism to the
Chinese tours of inspection performed, by the emperor, to the four
provinces in rotation.

The general application of the quadruplicate system is more
over shown by the fact that, from time immemorial, the population
of India has been divided into four great castes, and these are
associated with distinctive colors, the Sanscrit word for color,
varna, signifying also caste. According to the native myth,
Brahma created the Brahmin or ruling caste from his mouth, the
warrior caste from his arms and hands, the merchant and agricul
tural caste from his hips and the artisan or lowest caste from the

1 An interesting parallelism in the development or evolution of the idea of rota
tion around a central pole was brought to my notice by a model in the Indian De
partment of the South Kensington Museum. It represents the Hindu fanatical
religious rite known as the " Churruck Puja." Four individuals are suspended by
cords, with hooks drawn through their flesh, to a movable wooden structure like a
wheel surmounting a high pole, similar to that used by the Ancient Mexican "flyers"
(see p. 24) which likewise served as a pivot for the circling motion of the performers.
The torture voluntarily endured by the latter recalls that accompanying the sacred
sun pole-dance of certain North American Indian tribes. It is interesting to con
trast the ancient Mexican refined and intellectual symbolization of circumpolar mo
tion with the fanatical and hideous self-torture associated with the North American
and Hindu modes of representing the same phenomena, as it throws much light on
the development of certain sides of human nature.

749

314 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

soles of his feet. The warrior caste was named Kschatria ; the
people the yellow, or Vaicya ; the original, conquered inhabitants
of India were named the black, or Sudra. The Brahman caste was
above all these.

Concerning the origin of the Brahmans, it is related that " Maim
was created . . . . he, in turn created ten great sages, the ances
tors of the Brahmans. These created seven other Manns or
spiritual princes, the preservers of moral orders in the world"
(Goodyear). Pointing ont that the seven Manns evidently consti
tuted a septarchy, let us now study the Brahmanistic conception of
a supreme divinity. From various authorities we learn that, in
later times "the Brahmans invented a new god, the impersonal
Brahma, who only appears in the youngest portion of the Vedas."
He is described as ' ' the supreme One who alone exists really and
absolutely," and is represented with four heads and four arms, the
idea of four- fold power and rule being thus expressed. The proof
that, at the same time, the idea of duality existed, is furnished by
the invention of a female counterpart of Brahma, namely, his con
sort Sarawati and the later development of the rival religions which
now exist side by side and divide the population of India into
halves. The cult of Vishnu, associated with the male principle,
though curiously blended with the principle of preservation, is ob
viously a parallel form of the American and Chinese cult of the
Above or Heaven ; while that of Siva, or the female principle,
strongly mingled with the idea of destruction, forms a parallel to
the cult of the Earth-mother and of darkness and the nocturnal
heaven. Brahma was born of an egg and is also figured as spring
ing from a lotus which, in turn rises from the navel of Vishnu or
Naruyana, u the Spirit moving on the waters." . . . .1

In modern Buddhism the identical fundamental ideas continue
to exist in a slightly different form ; the six directions in space are
known and elaborately worshipped. The embodiment of central
power is Buddha, seated cross-legged on a lotus flower. Accord
ing to Bird wood, cited by Mr. Goodyear, "In the Hindu cos-

JMr. Wm. H. Goodyear, from whose admirable work, the Grammar of the Lotus,
the above quotations are ta>ken, remarks that " the myth of Horus rising from the
lotus, as found in the Egyptian texts, is the exact counterpart of this idea and as far
as Brahmanism is concerned, is much the older;" also that "it is possible that the
lotus symbolism of Egypt and India dates from a race which divided into separate
branches; it is also possible that the people of India experienced the influence, direct
or indirect, of Egypt."

750

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 315

mogouy the world is likened to a lotus flower, floating in the centre
of a shallow circular vessel, which has for its stalk an elephant and
for its pedestal a tortoise. The seven petals of the lotus flower
represent the seven divisions of the world as known to the ancient
Hindus and the tabular torus (Nelumbium speciosum) which rises
from their centre represents Mount Meru, the Hindu Olympus."

In the statues of Buddha, thus associated with the centre of
the world, we have what may be termed the highest development
of the idea of stability, quietude and absolute repose which im
pressed itself upon the human mind by the observation of Polaris.
The abstract conception of Nirvana, u the state in which all individ
uality and consciousness are lost, and life and death, good and evil,
and every other possible antithesis disappear in absolute unity,"
appears to me to be the natural ultimate outgrowth of the primi
tive appreciation of stability and repose as the most desirable of
conditions.

An ancient American priest-astronomer, imbued with the native
ideas, would doubtlessly see in the modern figures of Buddha a
more perfect artistic rendition of the same conception which was
expressed in the Copan swastika. He might remark that, in the
statues of Buddha, the human form is intended to convey the idea
of quadruple organization and that in certain images the primitive
symbols of the centre, " the belly and navel," are obviously em
phasized. In the fakirs, who cultivate immobility, he might see
people who are under the absolute dominion of the ideal of sta
bility and detect the origin of this suggestion from the fact that
the swastika position of either arms or legs is a favorite one
among Hindoo fanatics, just as, out of devotion, many persons
have swastikas painted or tattooed upon their limbs.

It is interesting to note the peculiar result attained by the Bud
dhists in their development of the twin idea of permanence, i. e.
immutability or immortality, as shown in the following quotation :
" There is a remarkable distinction between the Buddhism of China
and of Tibet. In regard to philosophy there is little or no differ
ence, but in Tibet there is a hierarchy which exercises political
power. In China this could not be. The Grand Lama and many
other lamas in Mongolia and Tibet assume the title of ' Living
Buddha.' In him, most of all, Buddha is incarnate, as the people
^are taught to think. He never dies. When the body, in which
Buddha is for the time incarnate, ceases to perform its functions,

751

316 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

some infant is chosen by the priests, who are intrusted with the
duty of selecting, to become the residence of Buddha until, in
turn, it grows up to manhood and dies. No Buddhist priest in
China pretends to be a ' living Buddha ' or to have a right to the
exercise of political power. In Tibet, on the other hand, the
Grand Lama, as chief of the * living Buddhas,' not only holds
the place of the historical Buddha long since dead, acting as a sort
of high-priest, but he also exercises sovereignty over the country
of Tibet ruling the laity as well as the clergy and being only sub
ordinate to the lord paramount, the Emperor of China" (Edkins,
Religion in China, p. 8).

"The form of the Buddhist temples exemplifies in a striking man
ner the relative positions of Buddha and the gods. Four kings of
the gods are represented in the vestibule. Their office is to guard
the door by which entrance is obtained to the presence of Buddha.
. The central position is that of Buddha, who is seated on
the lotus flower in the attitude of a teacher . . . " (Edkins).
In this attitude an ancient American high-priest would see the
graphic representation of one of the titles of the star-god Polaris,
" the teacher of the world."

The association of Buddha with the north and with the number
seven is curiously shown in the mythical account that " when Bud
dha wras born a lotus blossomed where he touched the ground ; he
stepped seven steps northward and a lotus marked each footfall."

Distinct evidence of the ancient cult of Polaris is yielded by
the Hindu marriage custom, whicli I have found described thus in
Meyer's conversations Lexikon : "In the evening the bride and
bridegroom seat themselves on the hide of a red ox, after making
the usual offerings . . . Then the bridegroom points out the
pole-star to the bride and says : ' the heaven is firm, also the
earth ; the universe is stedfast, so mayest thou be stedfast in our
family' . . ." The symbolism of the act of sharing the ox-hide
as a seat becomes apparent when it is realized that the name for
cow or ox — go, also signifies possessions and riches, a conception
which is traceable to a period when cattle constituted the chief
and most valued possession of pastoral tribes. The veneration
accorded in India to the cow is well known and travellers have
frequently described the sacred statue of a cow, which is seven
feet in height and stands next to the sacred well of the temple at
Benares.
752

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 317

In connection with the reference to the pole-star made by the
Hindu bridegroom, it is noteworthy that the Sanscrit for star is
stri, tara, for stara ; Hindu sitara, tara and Bengal staraand that
variants of the same word constitute the name for star in Latin,
Greek, Gothic, Old and Anglo Saxon, Welsh, Icelandic, Swedish,
Danish and Basque, in which language it appears as izarra, recall
ing the Hindu sitara and, if I may venture to say so, the Nahuatl
word for star, citlallin.

The supreme veneration and importance accorded in India to the
North, from time immemorial, are shown by passages of the book
of Mann, which prescribe the severe penances which were to be
performed by the Brahmans who attained advanced age. He " is
to inflict all sorts of tortures upon himself and when he falls ill in
consequence, he is to set out to walk to the northwest, towards the
holy mountain Meru, until his mortal frame breaks down and he
unites himself with Brahma." It is likewise stated that when a
Brahman king grew old and ill he was obliged to abdicate in favor
of his son and voluntarily seek death in battle or by starvation,
whilst wandering towards the holy mountain Meru, in the north
west. I point out the curious parallelism of this custom, which
was carried out during countless centuries and determined a peri
odical migration towards the northwest of venerable sages, pre
sumably accompanied by faithful followers, and the search for the
stable centre of the world which caused the wanderings of Ameri
can tribes under their chiefs.

According to various encyclopaedias and general works of refer
ence, Brahma is said to have made the world in two parts, i. e.,
heaven and earth ; placed air between both and made the eight re
gions, fire and the eternal waters. The mythical mountain Meru,
on the summit of which the supreme power is said to be en
throned in eternal majesty, is the traditional paradise and is sup
posed to lie somewhere in the northwest of the Himalayas. It is
situated in the centre of the seven zones in which the earth is di
vided, thence its name Meru = the Middle. The association of the
central mountain with divinity and eternal stability is further shown
by the statement that the sun, moon and stars circled about it
and that it supported the heaven.

As the natural complement to the above, I can cite the following
evidences of an all-pervading quadruplicate division and organiza
tion, as set forth in an ancient manuscript which was brought
p M. PAPERS i 48 753

318 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

from India by Count Angelo de Gubernatis and exhibited in
Florence in 1898, by Mr. Pulle. in an extremely instructive series
of native maps of India: 1. In the oldest maps, the empire of
India was represented as a disk, divided into a number of con
centric zones, in the centre of which arose the sacred mountain. 2.
These representations were, in several cases, accompanied by repre
sentations of the swastika obviously representing quadruplicate
territorial division.

On Mount Meru itself there were four lakes respectively filled
with milk, butter, coagulated milk and sugar. Four great rivers
flowed from the mountain towards the cardinal points, namely, the
Ganges, issuing from the mouth of a cow, the Sita from the head
of the elephant ; the Bhadra from a tiger or lion and the Chaksu
from a horse. " According to Buddhistic mythology, the sacred
mountain Meru, which constitutes the centre of the world, is
guarded by four hero " kings of demons." Their names are as fol
lows : 1. Kubera or Vaisranana, the god of wealth, who lives in
the north, whose attributes are the lance and banner, the rat which
throws forth jewels from its mouth. 2. Virudhaka, wrho rules the
south, and whose attributes are the helmet in the form of an ele-
phant's head, and a long sword. 3. Virupaksha, the guardian of
the west : attributes, the jewel and the serpent. 4 Dhrtarashtra,
the ruler of the east : attribute, the mandoline.

An interesting parallelism is brought out by a comparison be
tween the ancient Mexican mode of producing the sacred fire by
means of a reed and a piece of wood and its symbolism of the
mystic union of the two principles of nature, to the origin of fire
as told in the Veda and the ceremonial mode employed in India to
produce the sacred fire by means of the mystic arani and the pra-
mantha. The difference between the ancient American and Indian
apparatus should be noticed. The two arani, made of the wood of
Ficus religiosa, were placed crosswise. " At their junction was a
fossette or cup-like hole and there they placed a piece of wood
upright, in the form of a lance (the pramantha) , violent rotation
of which by means of whipping, produced fire, as did Prometheus,
the bearer of fire in Greece " (Bournouf, Des Sciences et Religions
and Prof. Thomas Wilson, The Swastika, p. 777). A remarkable
relation unquestionably exists between the two mystic arani, which,
crossed, form a four-branched cross from the centre of which fire is
produced by rotation and the almost universal identification of
754

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 319

Polaris and Ursa Major, as the central source of life, power ex
tending to four directions, rotation and duality underlying quadru-
plicity. In my opinion no more graphic presentation of the rota
tion of Ursa Major around Polaris, the central ruler of heaven,
could have been devised than the cross figure from the centre of
which fire was perpetually obtained.

It is all the more significant, therefore, to find it stated that the
ancient Aryan light-god, Mithra, was worshipped under the form of
fire. 1 point out that, in a representation published by Layard in his
Culte de Mithra and reproduced here (fig .72,1) from Mr. Goodyear's
work, a man and a woman are represented as worshipping a star,
the scene so strongly recalling the portion of the Hindu marriage
ceremony where the pole-star is pointed out, that an identity of scene
suggests itself. Returning to the swastika : its meaning in India
appears to be forgotten ; but, according to Professor Thomas Wil
son, a follower of the Jain religion expressed the opinion that " the
original idea was very high, but later on some persons thought the
swastika represented only the combination of the male and female
principles" (Thomas Wilson, On the Swastika, p. 803).

To the Hindu, holding this view and also accustomed to associate
the pole-star with the marriage rite, there must exist a curious
band of union and identity between Polaris and the swastika, both
connected with the combination of the male and female principles.

To treat of the Hindu calendar and division of time would be
to transgress beyond the limits of the present investigation which
has already assumed unforeseen dimensions. As I shall discuss
it in detail in my monograph on the ancient Mexican Calendar
system, it will suffice to recall here that Humboldt pointed out the
resemblance between the latter and the Hindu system, and that
this has been further dwelt upon for instance in the article on the
subject in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the same work of
reference it is also stated that, "according to the conclusions of
Delambre, the Hindoo knowledge of astronomy was greatly inferior
to that of the Greeks, and it has been argued by Lnplace, in oppo
sition to the previous opinions of Bailly, that the Indian astronomy
is not of the highest antiquity, but must have been imperfectly
borrowed from the Greeks." I may as w^ell state here, however,
that, in India as in Mexico, the divisions of time were in accordance
with the general scheme, and enabled human activity and labor to

755

320 KEY NOTE OF ANCIENT

be controlled and carried out by means of rotation, and with
strict impartial law, order and harmony.

Pausing here and with a clear realization of probable omissions
and deficiencies of material, I venture to believe that the foregoing
data suffice to establish beyond a doubt the point which is the
main object of the present essay, namely, that in India the swas
tika is found accompanied by the primordial set of ideas which
also form the basis of the Chinese and ancient American civiliza
tions. The Middle is, moreover, associated in India with the idea
of immovability, repose and centrifugal power and rule, incorpor
ated in the supreme divinity whose symbol is the wheel and who
is represented as dual and quadruple in nature, i. e. with four hands
(as two persons), and with four heads (four persons), the six per
sons thus symbolized being united in the person of the seventh,
the synopsis of them all. The seven-day period ; the seven zones
of the earth ; the seven divine footsteps towards the north ; the
seven councillors of the Brahmin king, etc., all prove that, whereas
six directions in space were worshipped in India, they were insepar
able from the sacred seventh which united all of them. The mythical
sacred mountain Mem, the throne of the supreme eternal power,
constituted the fixed centre of the world and strikingly exemplified
quadruplicate division and organization, being associated with four
lakes and four rivers ; four mythical animals and four guardians. In
consonance with this plan Brahma was endowed with four heads and
four hands ; the empire was divided into four quarters and seven
zones, and the population into four castes identified with four
colors, and governed by a king and seven councillors. The wheel,
associated in the case of Mithra with the serpent, constituted the
emblem of supreme dominion and rule which was connected with
the idea of an extension to the four quarters. The swastika was
but another expression of the same idea and represented also an
image of the universal scheme. This sign and the pole-star were
both associated, in the native mind, with the life-producing union
of the male and female principles of nature and the sacred element
fire, under which form the supreme god was anciently worshipped.
The lotus flower symbolized the universe, its unity and com
plexity ; the number of petals represented usually agreeing with
the number of the cosmical divisions. Two points should further
be briefly referred to : The division of time into seven-day periods
766

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 321

coincides with the septenary scheme of organization resting upon
the seven directions in space. The sacred soma tree, the horn, was
an object of cult in India. The custom of planting a Bodhi tree
wherever Buddhist missionaries established their doctrine iudi-
cutes its association with the idea of an established centre. The
employment of wooden sticks for the production of the sacred fire
under which form the supreme central god was anciently worshipped,
also connected wood and the tree with the sacred Centre. Deferring
a discussion of the different and yet analogous way in which the
fundamental set of ideas was worked out in America and India, I
shall but mention here how clearly, in each case, the ultimate results
can be traced back to a common primitive and natural origin.

MESOPOTAMIA.

Let us now carry our research into that region whence civiliza
tion spread through western Asia, and is said to have been carried
to Egypt, Greece and Rome. It may be a surprise to many to
learn that, at the present day, on the banks of the Euphrates, in
Mesopotamia, pole-star worship, pure and simple, is openly pro
fessed by the Manda'ites who are reputed to be the descendants of
the famous Magi of ancient Chaldea, and are termed Sabba or
Sabans by the Moslems. It wrill be seen that these star-watchers
have preserved intact an extremely ancient form of the archaic
cult which contains the living germ of all primitive religions and
represents an evolutionary stage wrhich they must all have under
gone.

It is to the kindness of a friend that I owe the knowledge of an
article on a Mandaite New Year festival which appeared in the
" Standard " some years ago and which I reproduce in full as
Appendix II. As might be expected, the Euphratean star-gazers,
like the Chinese, determined midnight by the position of the Great
Bear. It is interesting to find, moreover, hat the spiritual head
of the sect is entitled Gan-zivro, and is closely escorted by four
young deacons, named sh-kan-dos, as well as by four priests
— tarmidos, and four sub-deacons. The circumstance that the
consecrated group of officiants consists of 12 -f- 1 =. 13 individuals
is particularly suggestive. Not less so are the employment of the
tail-shaped cross and the sacrifice of a quadruped to the lord of the
underworld and his companion (the lord of the upper world ?).
The ceremonial immersion in the starlit river is a curious parallel

757

322 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

to the midnight bathing in the sacred pool attached to the ancient
Mexican temple.

The formulas employed in addressing the pole- star deserve special
consideration. In the designation of the stable centre of heaven
as " the abode of the pious hereafter and the paradise of the elect,"
the natural longings of the human race for stability, i. e. safety
and repose, find an expression and in this we can detect the germ
of thought whose extreme development, in India, produced the
comparatively philosophical doctrine of Nirvana. The title of
"Primitive Sun " enlightens us as to the original use of the word sun
and the supreme importance accorded by the ancient star-gazers to
the " Imperial ruler of heaven," as the Chinese term the pole-star.
This application of the word sun will be found particularly interest
ing to those who, having found the swastika termed a "sun-
symbol," have naturally been led to associate it with the diurnal sun,
although they found it difficult to understand its connection with
the rotatory motion so clearly discernible in the form of the prim
itive symbol.

Having ascertained that the Mandaite pole-star worship of the
present day embodies the cult of the sacred centre and of dual prin
ciples (one of which is designated as the lord of the underworld)
and is associated with quadruple organization and a form of
cross, let us now make a great stride backwards and note some
details concerning ancient Sabsean star- worship.

ARABIA.

In remote antiquity, star- worship prevailed throughout Arabia
and one of its great centres was the nourishing land of Saba
or Sheba, whose queen visited Solomon at Jerusalem. The star-
cult of the Sabaeans is acknowledged to have resembled that
of the ancient inhabitants of Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia and
India. We are told that a certain sect amongst them " believed in
a great cycle of time in which certain epochs of the world's his
tory recurred" — an idea akin to ancient Mexican speculative phil
osophy. It is also stated that one of the chief centres of Sabreism
was the town of Harran in Mesopotamia and that, although sur
rounded by Christianity, this ancient form of star-worship main
tained itself here until the Middle Ages. The possibility that the
Mandaites of to-day may be the descendants of the ancient inhab
itants of Harran is naturally suggested by this historical fact.
758

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 323

A curious detail concerning monarchical succession in Sheba has
been preserved to us. The king was kept in an enforced seclusion
in his palace and incurred the penalty of death if he left it. His
office was not hereditary but fell to the first son who was born
amongst the nobility, after a king's accession to the throne. In
this custom, a curious parallel of which is furnished by the Thibe
tan mode of electing the " living Buddha," some readers maybe
inclined to find an explanation for the massacre of the babes or
dered by Herod when he learned that the wise men of the East,
guided by a star, had designated " a young child " as the future
"King of the Jews." It is an interesting reflection that, to many
of his contemporaries, the establishment of the " Kingdom of
Heaven," announced by the Messiah, may have appeared as a
movement to revive the most ancient form of government and to
reinstate Jerusalem as the central metropolis of an empire, the
organization of which would have resembled the Chinese and ancient
American forms of " Middle Kingdoms," or ll Celestial Empires."

The ideal of many of these descendants of ancient pole-star
worshippers may well have been the reversion to the primitive,
pure type of single central, celestial and terrestrial rule which had
been superseded in western Asia by the pernicious growth of the
utterly abasing and demoralizing separate cults of the dual prin
ciples of nature.

A curious remnant of the worship of the Earth-mother and of
the stable centre of the world, recalling ancient American symbol
ism, exists in Arabia and merits a passing notice. " The great holy
place of Jiddah, the principal landing place of the pilgrims to
Mecca, on the eastern coast of the Red sea, is the singular tomb of
" our mother Eve ' surrounded by the principal cemetery. The tomb
is a walled enclosure said to represent the dimensions of the body
about 200 paces long and 15 feet wide. At the head is a small
erection where gifts are deposited and rather more than half way
down a whitewashed dome encloses a small, dark chapel, within
which is the black stone known as el-surrah := the navel. The
grave of Eve is mentioned by Edrisi but, except the black stone,
nothing bears any aspect of antiquity " (Encycl. Brit., article
Jiddah).

The fact that the Arabian appellation for Mecca is om-el-kora —
u the mother of cities " deserves special attention. Exactly in the
centre of the city is the mosque enclosing the kaaba, a structure

759

324 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the only door of which opens to the north. It contains the cele
brated black sacred stone and a trough, reputed to be of pure
gold, which conducts freshly fallen rain water to the interior of
the building and pours it upon its floor of dark earth. The fol
lowing details are given in a recently published account by an
anonymous visitor :

"The Moslems believe that the original Kaaba was built in heaven
two thousand years before the creation of the world and that, at
the command of the Almighty, angels walked around it in adora
tion. Furthermore, they said that Adam built the first Kaaba on
earth on its present site, directly under the one in heaven. .
Long before the time of Mahomet, the Kaaba was a place of wor
ship for the idolatrous Arabs and in it they had no less than 360
idols, one for each day of the Arabian year. These were destroyed
by Mahomet. . . ." Beside the pilgrimages to the Kaaba pious
Mussulmans also visit the sacred granite mountains the " Arafat
where Adam is supposed to have met Eve after a long separation."

Summarized, the preceding facts clearly show that, from a re
mote antiquity, the Arabians have preserved the conception of (1)
a divine, celestial, stable sanctuary around which "angels" walked
in a circle. (2) A terrestrial sanctuary built by man directly be
neath the heavenly one and associated with the period of a year,
i. e. 360 days. (3) In the sacred terrestrial kaaba the mystic
union of rain and earth is made to take place, while (4) Mount
Arafat is connected with the traditional reunion of Adam and Eve.

It is unnecessary to point out the significant association of an
annual count of days with the stable centre and its importance as
an indication that the ancient Arabian star-gazers originally asso
ciated the year period with circumpolar rotation. The analogy be
tween the Arabian ideas concerning the dual principles of nature
and those of other nations is also too marked to be easily over
looked.

Nor need I emphasize how strikingly the imagery of the celestial
kaaba suits Polaris and the circumpolar constellations. But I shall
now proceed to point out that the word kaaba itself curiously re
sembles star-names which are given by Mr. Robert Brown in his
recent valuable publication to which I shall revert, namely, the
Akkadian name for constellation in general — kakkab and the Baby
lonian and Assyrian name for the pole-star — Kakkabu. In this con
nection and upon Professor Sayce's authority I cite the significant
760

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 325

fact that the word for north and for the empire and capital of north
ern Babylonia was Akkad, and that we thus find in North Baby
lonia a great centre of government the name of which contains the
syllables ak-ka which recur in the appellations for north and for
Polaris.

The following star-names, given by Mr. Robert Brown, are of
utmost interest considering that a star in Draconis was the pole-
star of 2170 B. C. and that in general the serpent was indissolubly
connected with the pole-star. tl The constellation Drakon is Phoe
nicians Kanaanite in origin and represented primarily the nakkasch
qodmun (old serpent) = the guardian of the stars (golden apples)
which hang from the pole tree. It is called the crooked serpent =
nakkasch in Job xxvi : 13 . . . . " op. tit., p. 29). I further
cite Mr. Brown's authority for the fact that in Phoenicia A. D., 1200,
the name for Ursa Major was Dubkabir and for Ursa Minor, Dub.

Before returning to the Euphratean valley let us note some facts
concerning the ancient religion of

PERSIA.

The swastika is found in Persia as well as a sacred mountain,
the Elburl. The supreme divinity was the invisible Ahuramnzda,
the *• creator of heaven and earth," who was associated with
"eternal light " and appears to be identical with the ancient Aryan
god of light, Mithra, the watcher and ruler of the world, who was
worshipped under the form of fire.

Mithra and Ahuramazda alike are associated with six spirits
named the Amesha-zpenta, who are said, in the first case, to be
personifications of the sun, moon, fire, earth, water and air, and
in the second, of certain qualities of the supreme power, namely,
law, power, goodness, piety, health and immortality, abstract con
ceptions which evidently pertain to a more advanced intellectual
stage. The septarchy thus formed by Mithra and his Amesha
appears to assign the Middle to him and to associate the sun with
the day, heaven, light and the Above, the moon with the night and
darkness and the Below, and the elements with the Four Quarters.
It is suggestive of four-fold rule and power to find, on a bas-
relief found at the ancient holy city Pasargada, the Persian kino-
Cyrus represented witli four wings and a diadem with two UHEUS
serpents like that of Egyptian kings.

326 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

The most ancient Persian monarch is said to have been Haha-
manis or Akhamanis, who was termed " the king of Anshan."
Subsequent kings bore the title of Hakharnauisija, as for instance,
Cyrus and Darius I (520-486 B.C.). At the present day, the
title Charkan is that employed to designate the Shah, whereas
god a or khoda signifies lord, master, prince or ruler.

In a bas-relief published by Spamer, whose work of reference
will be referred to again later on, Darius is represented as stand
ing under the image of Ahuramazda, the supreme deity, who, like
the Assyrian god Assur, is figured as a king wearing the royal
cap, and issuing from the centre of a winged ring or circlet. In
Persia the god holds another ring in his hand (fig. 71, 1). It seems
impossible to emphasize more strongly or express more clearly the
idea that Ahuramazda was the lord of the circle and of the Above,
the wings being emblematic of air or heaven and of motion.

The signification of the symbolical representation of the supreme
power and the adoption of fire by the founders of the ancient
Parsee religion as the most appropriate image of their highest god,
become clear when interpreted as the outcome of pole-star worship.
Resisting the temptation to prolong the study of ancient Persia,
let us now hasten to the reputed cradle of the civilization of West
ern Asia.

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

" The Babylonians were from the first a nation of star gazers.
The cuneiform character which denotes a god is the pict
ure of a star" (Sayce op. cit.). " The Babylonian and Assyrian-
name for Ursa Minor was Kakkabu ; the Hebrew, Kokhabh ; and
the Euphratean, Kochab, which means, ' the Bfar present ,' a title
which reminds us of its former supreme importance as the pole-
star. . In various Babylonian tablets we meet a star-
god called Imina-bi = the seven-fold one."1 Although Mr. Brown
has reached no definite conclusion as to the identity of this star-
god, I venture to maintain that the original " seven- fold one"
could have been no other than Ursa Major and that this and
"the ever-present star " are identical with what the Chinese termed
"the Imperial Ruler of Heaven" and the "Seven Regulators. '
The following passages furnish ample evidence of the suggestive

1 Researches into the origin of the primitive constellations of the Greeks, Phccni-
cians and Babylonians (Robert Brown, jun., F. S. A., M. R. A. S., vol. I, 1899, p. 357).

762

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 327

influence that " the seven-fold one" exerted upon the minds of the
ancient Babylonian star-gazers.

" The institution of the sabbath went back to the Sumerian days
of Chaldea — the name itself is Babylonian" (Sayce, op. cit.).
" The seventh month (=r Sept.-Oct.) in Akkadian is named Tul-ku
= the holy altar. . . . The seventh month of Tasritutisri was
also connected with the building of the tower of Babel, said to
have been the special work of the ' King of the Holy Mound,'
Sar-tuli-elli, and its erection placed in the seventh month at the
autumnal equinox. It was a zikkuratu with seven steps, a cir
cumstance connected with planetary [ ? stellar] symbolism. This
style of building is reduplicated in the oldest Egyptian pyramids,
e. g. the pyramid of Sakkarah, which had seven steps like the Baby
lonian towers. This circumstance, one amongst many such, sup
plies a most interesting illustration of the fact that the Egyptian
civilization was mainly Euphrateau in origin" (Robert Brown,
op. cit.) .

The following facts contained in Prof. Morris Jastrow's admi
rable hand book on the "Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," further
establish the pervading influence of the number seven. " The two
most famous zikkurats of seven stages were those in Babylon and
Borsippa, opposite Babylon. The latter bears the significant name
E-ur-imin-an-ki, i. e., ' the house of seven divisions of heaven and
earth.' Two much older towers than those of Babylon and Borsippa
bear names in which ' seven' is introduced. One of these is the
zikkurat to Nin-girsu at Lagash, which Gudea describes as ' the
house of seven divisions of the world,' the other the tower at Uruk,
which bore the name l house of seven zones.' The reference in
both cases is, as Jensen has shown, to the seven concentric zones
into which the earth was divided by the Babylonians."

In a standard German book of reference (Spamer's Illustrierte
Weltgeschichte I Theil, Alterthum, I Theil, s. 371), I find the
statement that the zikkurat of the temple I-zidda at Borsippa, was
called " the temple of the seven lights of heaven and earth," which
seem to have been symbolized also by the seven-branched candle
stick of the Hebrews. Considering that other sacred symbols
which were employed in Solomon's temple are believed by Professor
Jastrow to be " imitations of Babylonian models," it seems justifi
able to endeavor to trace to the same source the origin of the
Hebrew " seven-branched candlestick," to which I shall revert later

328 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

on. Prof. Morris Jastrovv offers the suggestion that the name
" seven directions of heaven and earth" may point to a conception
of seven zones dividing the heavens as well as the earth, and states
that the "seven divisions" and " seven zones " are merely terms
equivalent to universe. He explains that the seven directions were
interpreted by the Babylonian theologians as a reference to the
seven great celestial bodies, the sun and moon, Ishtar, Marduk,
Ninib, Nergal and Nabu. To each of these one story was sup
posed to be dedicated and the tower thus became a cosmological
symbol. Moreover, from Herodotus' description of the seven con
centric walls of Ecbatana, in which each wall was distinguished
by a certain color, the conclusion has been drawn that the same
colors — white, black, scarlet, blue, orange, silver and gold — were
employed by the Babylonians for the stages of their towers.

Professor Jastrow draws attention to the fact that the division of
the earth into seven zones is a " conception that we encounter in
India and Persia, and that survives in the seven ' climates ' into
which the world was divided by Greek and Arabic geographers. It
seems clear that this interpretation of the number seven is older than
the one that identified each story with one of the planets. Both inter
pretations have a scholastic aspect, however, and the very fact that
there are two interpretations justifies the suspicion that neither fur
nishes the real explanation why the number seven was chosen . .
. . . . it is because seven was popularly sacred that the world
was divided into seven zones and that the planets were fixed at
seven, not vice versa" (p. 620).

The preceding statements lead to the conclusion that, among
Assyriologists there is no current, generally-accepted view as to the
origin of the " sacred seven " of the Babylonians. The following
details concerning the zikkurat and the sanctuaries of Babylon will
be found to furnish evidence that their builders were imbued with
the identical primitive set of ideas or seven-fold division of the cos
mos that is now so familiar to the reader and is traceable to the
observation of Polaris and Septentriones.

The astronomical association and cosmological symbolism of the
zikkurat become more and more evident when all evidence con
cerning it is carefully sifted. According to the cosmogony of the
Babylonians the earth was pictured as a huge mountain. Khar-
sag-gal-kurkura = the mountain of all lands, is a designation for
the earth. E-kur = mountain house, another name for the earth,
701

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 329

became one of the names for temple and, by extension, for the
sacred precinct which enclosed the zikkurat and sacred edifices.1

A plural formed of the word E-kur, = Ekurrati, was used for
divinities, and this association of the word mountain with the name
for a god is particularly interesting when it is also remembered
that the cuneiform character for god is a star and that therefore
either a mountain, or a star, signified a god in Babylonian and
Assyrian inscriptions. Bel, the supreme star god of the Babylo
nians, whose name literally signifies merely ki lord or king," and
under the form Ah-baal became current throughout Asia Minor,
was, as Professor Jastrow states (op. cit. p. 435), actually identified
with the polar star, and sometimes addressed as the " great moun
tain."2

The famous temple, the E-kur of Babylonian history, is de
scribed by Herodotus, Strabo and other pagan authorities, as con
sisting of seven stories and being surmounted by a sanctuary which
was under the charge of a virgin priestess and contained a couch
(resting-place) for the god.3 It is amply demonstrated, more
over, that the central zikkurat was regarded as the permanent rest
ing and dwelling place of the lord or god, par excellence, and in
this connection it is significant that among the names of sanctua-

1 In Assyria we find one of the oldest temples bearing the name E-kharsag-kurkura,
that stamps the edifice as the reproduction of the " mountain of all lands " and there
are other temples that likewise bear names in which the idea of a mountain is intro
duced The zikkurat or "mountain house ''=E-kur was at Nippur, Sippar, Uruk,

Ur and Larsa, " the centre of a considerable group of buildings ; while at Babylon . .
. . . the temple area of E-sagila must have presented the appearance of a little city
of itself, shut off from the rest of the town by a wall which invariably enclosed the
sacred quarter." The name E-kur was used at Nippur, by extension, to denote the
entire sacred precinct which contained the zikkurat or staged tower, the great court
where worshippers assembled, shrines and other minor structures. The excavations at
Nippur have afforded us, for the first time, a general view of a sacred quarter in an
ancient Babylonian city. The extent of the quarter was considerable. Dr. Peters'

estimate is eight acres for the zikkurat and surrounding structures A

factor that contributed largely to the growth of the sacred precinct in the large cen
tres was the circumstance that the political importance of such centres as Nippur,
Lagash, Ur, Babylon and Nineveh led the rulers to group around the worship of the
chief deity, the cult of the minor ones who constituted the family or court of the chief
god." A " list of temples in Lagash, recently published by Scheil, .... furnishes
the name of no less than thirteen sacred edifices, and we are certain that as many as
four or five smaller chapels surrounded the precinct in which stood the great temple
E-niunu " (Jastrow, op. cit. chap.xxvi).

2 These facts shed additional light and interest upon the Mt. Meru of India, where
the Brahmans sought union with their god Brahma.

a "Diodorus Siculus maintains that the E-kur was employed as an astronomical ob
servatory. The antiquity of Babylonian astronomy is indicated by the testimony of
Simplicius and Porphyrius who relate that Callisthenes, the companion of Alexander

765

330 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

ries enumerated by Professor Jastrow there occur such as " the true
or fixed house," the house of the established seat, the sacred dwel
ling, the permanent dwelling, etc.

The Babylonian ideas connected with the supreme god and his
temple are, moreover, sufficiently apparent in the prayers to Marduk,
from which I extract the following detached passages : " Marduk,
king of heaven and earth . . . Look favorably upon the city,
0 lord of rest ! . . . May the gods of heaven and earth speak to
thee 0 lord of rest / . . . A resting-place for the lord of
E-sagila is thy house, K-sagila, the house of thy sovereignty, is
thy house "

The sanctuary surmounting the zikkurat, is also termed "the
high place par excellence, or the lofty house, the high edifice,
the tower of the great dwelling, the great palace, the house of
the glorious mountain [or god] the house of him who gives the
sceptre of the world ; also the house of light, the house of great
splendor, the house without rival, the gate of widespread splendor,
the light of Shamash, the heart of Shamash, the life of the world."

The idea that the " mountain house" or " high place" was the
consecrated centre where the union of heaven and earth took place,
is apparent from the following names: "the house of heavenly
construction, the heavenly house, the house reaching to heaven, the
point of heaven and earth, the link of heaven and earth, the foun
dation stone of heaven and earth.

" Complementing," as Professor Jastrow says," the cosmological
associations that have been noted in connection with the zikkurat,"
we find the inner room or sanctuary of the Babylonian and Assy
rian temple named Papakhu, from the verb pakhu ~ to close.
It was also known as the parakhu, from paraku = to shut off, to
lock. " Gudea describes the papakhu as ' the dark chamber.'
Professor Jastrow states that it was regarded as an imitation of a
cosmical ' sacred chamber,' and from his book we learn that it was
employed as an assembly room, or council chamber by the priest
hood. It was indeed termed l the assembly room ' the ' place of

the Great during his campaigns, brought back from Babylon and communicated to
Aristoteles a series of observations which had been made there for a period of 1,903
years. Accordingly, the Chaldeans must have begun to make astronomical notes
more than 2,200 years before the Christian era. It stands indeed to reason that they
must have made observations during countless centuries, since they discovered the
Saros, known as the Chaldaean period of 6583J days, which served for the prediction
of eclipses and were also acquainted with t\ie precession of the equinoxes."

766

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 331

fates,' ' the court of the world,' ' the house of oracle,' also as the
' sacred room where the gods assembled in solemn council ' and
4 the chamber of fates ' where the chief god sits on New Year's
day and decides the fate of mankind for the ensuing year" (Jas-
trow, op. cit. p. 423).

The Babylonian and Assyrian kings were the living representa
tives of the chief god and Professor Jastrow states that " it was in
to the papakhu that the priests retired when they desired to obtain
an oracle direct from the god It is particularly inter
esting to collate the statements ; that the New Year's day was the
occasion of a symbolical marriage between a god and goddess,'
and that ' the New Year's festival came to be the season most ap
propriate for approaching the oracular chamber.' " It thus appears
that the papakhu was the sacred and secret chamber where the an
cient kings and their councillors united to confer upon the govern
ment of the nation and decreed the irrevocable laws which decided
the fate of individuals.

'• The *• decision of fates ' is, in Babylonian theology, one of
the chief functions of the gods. It constitutes the mainspring of
their power. To decide fates is to control the arrangement
of the universe — to establish order." The "tablets of fate" are
repeatedly mentioned in the Assyrian epics where it is described how
one god addressing another, '• gives him the tablets of fate, hangs
them on his breast and dismisses him," with the words: "thy
command be invincible, thy order authoritative" (Jastrow, pp.
420 and 424). It is evident that these words were supposed to
convey the power to establish order and issue irrevocable laws.

The temple of Shamash (who, like Marduk, was evidently identi
cal with Bel), situated in Babylon, was termed " the house of the
universal judge," and it is extremely interesting to find this "god"1
represented on a stone tablet found at Sippar, as seated on a low
throne in the sanctuary or papakkhu, of the temple El-bab-bara,
while in front of him on an altar rests what Professor Jastrow
describes as "a wheel with radiant spokes."

A fine illustration of this tablet which bears an inscription by the

1 Professor Jastrow tells us that the name Shamash merely signifies vassal or servi
tor. I venture to point out what is doubtlessly a fact familiar to Assyriologists, that
the name closely resembles the Babylonian-Assyrian name Shame = heaven, the
equivalent of the Sumerian an, a word of which the most ancient cuneiform signs
were four crossed lines, forming eight lines proceeding from a common centre.

767

332 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

king Nabupaliddin (879-855 B. C.) being published in Spamer's
standard work already cited, I have been able to note the inter
esting fact that the "wheel with radiant spokes" exhibits four
pointed rays, directed outwards and forming a cruciform figure,
which, by the way, it is interesting to compare with the Mexican
Calendar stone and its four rays. Each of the spaces between
these pointed rays is filled by a group of wavy lines which appears
to simulate some fluid flowing from the centre, which is formed by
a series of concentric circles. The quadruplicate peculiar partition
of the disk assumes special importance when it is realized that,
in the niche above the head of Shamash, a miniature production of
the disk recurs between the familiar conventional images of the
moon and a disk containing eight rays or spokes. According to Dr.
Felix von Luschan (Mitth. aus der vorderasiat. Abth. der Kgl.
Museeu, Heft xi, p. 24), the inscription opens with the invocation
to " ilu Sin, ilu Shamash u ilu Ishtar," a fact of double interest,
because Ishtar is termed the " twin-sister of Shamash " in an Assy
rian hymn, and because the inscription obviously identifies the
moon as the symbol of Sin, the four- spoked wheel as that of
Shamash and the eight-spoked wheel as that of Ishtar. As the
king, in his inscriptions expressly states that he has restored on
the tablet the image of Shamash according to an ancient model,
for the guidance of future artists, it is evident that departures
from the original cult of Shamash had taken place in his time and
that he was making an attempt to reestablish it. The extreme
antiquity of the cult of Shamash may, indeed, be inferred from the
fact that about B. C. 1850, the king, Shamsi-ramann, bore the god's
name as a divine title. About B. C. 1350, moreover, a temple was
built to Shamash in Ashur.

I shall treat, further on, of the evidences showing that the cult of
Polaris gradually became a secret one known to the initiated only,
while popular worship was directed to the sun, moon, and morning
and evening stars, etc. Meanwhile the following passages from
Professor Jastrow's hand-book will elucidate the Babylonian As
syrian cult of the Four Quarters.

" The zikkurat was quadrangular in shape. The orientation of
the four corners towards the four cardinal points was approximate.
Inasmuch as the rulers of Babylon from a very early period call
themselves ' king of the four regions,' it has been supposed that
768

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS.

333

the quadrangular shape was chosen designedly." ......

" The title ' king of the four regions ' was an old one that per
tained to the kings of Agade .... The city of Arbela, at

one time the seat of the cult of Ishtar, was named ' the four-god
city.' " This name is particularly interesting when it is remembered
that the Babylonian and Assyrian word for god and mountain was
identical and that this identity may account for the Chinese em
ployment of the term " four mountains," to express also the four
provinces and their chiefs. Prof essor Jastrow informs us, in a note,
that the name Arbela is, more precisely, Arba-ilu, signifying " city
of the four- fold divinity " or " four-god " city and invites compari
son to the Palestinian form Kiryath-arba, '• four-city." He sug
gests that this name may perhaps likewise signify a city of four
gods, but adds that it has commonly been explained as meaning
four roads or four quarters (op. tit. 203).

The ancient pagan authorities inform us that the ancient city
of Babylon was laid out in the form of a perfect square, the
sides of which were oriented to the cardinal points. A massive
wall enclosed the entire city and the river Euphrates divided it
into halves, united by a bridge, each half being again subdivided
by the main street leading to the bridge. A series of streets ran
parallel to the river through the city and were crossed at right
angles by others, the result being that 625 blocks or squares of
building were thus formed.

There is positive evidence that the capital city of Lagash or
Shir-pur-la was divided into four sections, the separate names of
which were G-irsu, Uru-alaga, Nina and Gish-Galla or P>im, the
reading of the latter name being doubtful. The circumstance that
each of these quarters had its "divinity" and was ruled by its earthly
representative, explains the term " four-god city " or "• four city"
found associated with other capitals of Babylonia.

The existence of a central ruler who exercised supreme author
ity over the four quarters of the capital, and by extension over the
"four provinces" is amply proven by the title of the Babylonian
kings, i. e., the " king of the four regions." An interesting oracle,
addressed to king Esar-Haddon is found to contain the statement
that " Ashur has given him the four ends of the earth" (Jastrow,
op. tit. 345) .

Evidence that while the capital and entire state consisted of
four quarters, the whole was also divided theoretically and practi-
p. M. PAPERS, i 49 769

334 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

cally into halves, is furnished by the significant fact that, from
remote antiquity, the rulers of Babylonia also bore the title of " lord
of Akkad and Sumer" — North and South, this term being, like
that of " Four Regions," a general designation for the whole of
Babylonia and the first being obviously analogous to the Egyptian
royal title : " King of upper and lower Egypt."

I can but briefly indicate here some facts which prove that this
ancient Babylonian centre of civilization underwent precisely the
same evolution as that I have traced in America and India.

Assyriologists agree in stating that, at the beginning of Babylon
ian history, about 4,000 B. C., Akkad and Sumer, or North and
South Babylonia, already existed and were inhabited by two dis
tinct races of people : the non-Semitic Sumerians and the Semitic
Akkadians or later Babylonians. In later times we find the region
embraced by the Euphrates and Tigris inhabited by descendants
of both races and forming the Babylonian empire in the south, the
Assyrian empire to the northeast, while in the northwestern part
of Mesopotamia, was the seat of various empires that were alter
nately the rivals and subjects of either Babylonia or Assyria
(Jastrow, op. cit. 26).

Three distinct and rival cults are indeed found associated with
these three centres of government, and when examined by the light
of our knowledge of a parallel process of evolution elsewhere, their
origin can be traced back to elementary pole-star heaven and earth
worship, and what is termed the establishment of the districts of
Ann, Bel and Ea. That at one period these separate cults peace
fully existed alongside of each other is indicated by the joint wor
ship of pairs and triads of divinities who were personifications of
central powers, of the upper and of the lower regions. In order
to demonstrate this statement I shall briefly cite some references to
such divinities from Professor Jastrow's hand-book, taking them in
the order in which they are enumerated in the famous Babylonian
version of the creation of the world, contained in the fragment
known as the u Creation epic " wrhich begins thus :

"There was a time where Above, the heaven, was not named.
Below, the earth, bore no name. Apsu was there from the first, the
source of both (i. e., heaven and earth). And raging Tiamat, the
mother of both (i. e., heaven and earth)." Apsu and Tiamat are
synonymous and are personifications of the watery deep or abyss.
"Apsu represents the male and Tiamat the female principle of the

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 335

primaeval universe .... the embrace of Apsu and Tiamat
became a symbol of ' sexual ' union."

Tiamat was popularly pictured as a huge serpent-like monster,
a fact of utmost interest when connected with the name Nakkash,
i. e., crooked serpent, bestowed upon the constellation Draconis
which contained the pole-star of 2170 B. C. Abstaining from
comment I merely establish here the interesting point that in an
cient Babylonia the serpent is found distinctly associated with
Polaris as well as with the dual creative principle. The divine
pairs Lakhmu and Lakhamu and Anshar and Kishar were then
created. By an arbitrary division of his name into An and shar,
the deity becomes the •' one that embraces all that is above."
The element An is the same that we have in Ann and is the ideo
graphic form for "high" and " heaven." Ki is the ideographic
form for earth and the natural consort to an all-embracing upper
power is a power that " embraces all that is below."

It is interesting thus to ascertain that on another tablet by the
side of these personifications of heaven and earth are enumerated
a series of names which certainly appear to be merely variations
on the names or titles of the divine pairs. Lakhumu and Lakhamu
occur on the list, and Anshar and Kishar recur as Anshar-gal,
"great totality of what is on high," and Kishar-gal, " great total
ity of what is below." Then there are En- shar and Nin-shar,
"lord and mistress" and a. " Father - Mother of Ami," titles
which furnish an interesting comparison with the list printed on
page 42 of this investigation.

Pagan authorities, cited by Professor Jastrow, relate that the first
result of the union of Apsu and Tiamat was the production of
"strange monsters, human beings with wings, beings with two
heads, male and female, hybrid formations, half man, half animal,
with horns of rams and horses' hoofs, bulls with human faces, dogs
with four-fold bodies euding in fish tails." Seen in the light of
the present investigation these accounts and the sculptured images
of such monstrosities, many of which have been preserved to the
present day, may be accounted for in a very simple and nat
ural manner. It is obvious that, once the Babylonian theologians
had definitely adopted the theory and creed that the universe had
been created by the union of the Above and Below, Male and Fe
male principle, Heaven and Earth, or Upper and Lower Firmament,
the production of allegorical images personifying or symbolizing this

336 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

union would inevitably follow in course of time. The somewhat
naive but expressive combination of the form of a quadruped or
serpent with that of a bird, and the adoption of winged bulls, lions
and serpents, would have seemed a most appropriate rendering of
the current idea of the dual, creative power, which might also be
conveyed by two heads, or two horns. From Professor Jastrow's
description of the case of a single monster, with four bodies and with
attributes of the elements earth and water, we learn that not only
the union of heaven and earth but also of earth and water was at
times the task imposed upon the native artists by the fancy and
imagination of minds dwelling upon the subject of the creative
first cause. Postponing further discussion of the Babylonian and
Assyrian symbolism of the Middle, Above and Below and Four
Quarters or the " seven directions of Heaven and Earth," I shall
now direct attention to the most famous triad of Babylonian cos
mology which figures at the end of the Creation epic. It consisted
of Anu, P^a and Bel1 and obviously personified the Above and
Below and the link or central meeting place of these, the earth
named Esharra, " the house of fertility " or E-kur "the mountain
house." We learn from Professor Jastrow's handbook that where
as Bel = the polar star (the secret god) and Nibir = the planet
Jupiter (the later popular personification of Bel) were associated
with the North, Ea was identified with the South (p. 435).
Elsewhere we are told that Anu was identified with the North, Bel
with the equator and Ea with the South (p. 460), a fact to which I
shall again recur in treating of the territorial divisions of the state,
which corresponded to the three divisions of the universe, the
Above, Middle and Below.

The following detached statements concerning Babylonian di
vinities drawn from Professor Jastrow's handbook, show with what
activity the fundamental set of ideas was developed by the native
theologians and philosophers. Bel-arduk became the chief god
of Babylon, the title uBelu-rabu" i. e., "great lord," becoming
identified with Marduk. As such he is termed "the king of
heaven and earth " and the " lord of the four regions." His dwell
ing was on the sacred u mountain-house," the zikkurat, and is rep
resented u with a crown with high horns, a symbol of dual rulership.

i A striking corroboration of the view that China derived its civilization from Asia
Minor is afforded by the resemblance between the Assyrian Anu and the Chinese
Shang, both signifying Heaven, and the Assyrian Ea and Chinese Lea, both applied
to " the Below."

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 337

As the supreme ruler, life and death are in his hands and he guides
the decrees of the deities of the Above and Below." " The first
part of the name Marduk is also used to designate the ' young bul
lock,' and it is possible that the god was pictured in this way."
It should be remembered here, however, that on page 89 Professor
Jastrow tells us how Nannar = the one who furnishes light =: the
moon, was invoked as " the powerful bull of Ann," i. e., heaven.
In this connection it is interesting to learn that in Canaan, Astarte,
the goddess of night, was also worshipped under the form of a cow,
and that in Phoenicia she was sometimes figured with horns, sym
bolizing the moon. In Assyria, four horns, denoting four-fold
rulership, usually encircle the high conical cap of sovereignty,
which also crowns the human heads of the winged bulls. It may
be permissible to point out here what an appropriate and expressive
embodiment of symbolism the Avinged bull appears to be ; the form
of the quadruped, combined with wings, clearly symbolizes a union
of the Above and Below ; the control over both being expressed
by the human head which completes the allegorical figure. The
high cap, with which the head was crowned, exhibits the form of a
mound, and combined or partly encircled by two or sometimes
four horns, obviously symbolizes dual or quadruple rulership. It
thus appears evident that the winged bull of Assyria expressed,
almost as clearly as the seven-staged towers of Babylon, the
" seven directions of heaven and earth," and was as appropriate
an allegorical image of Assur the god, as of Assur the state, and
of the royal power which conferred upon the supreme lords of
Babylonia and Assyria the titles : " lord of the holy mound, " "lord
of Akkad and Sumer," and "lord of the four regions."

The idea that some of the Assyrian kings actually embodied
seven-fold power, or ruled the kt> seven divisions," is further con
veyed by curious groups of seven symbols, accompanied by the
numeral seven, expressed by seven dots, which occur above their
portraits on tablets which will be described further on. AVhilst
analyzing the royal titles and insignia represented on the stelae of
Assyrian kings, I shall likewise show how these complete the
foregoing evidence and indicate that in Babylonia and Assyria, the
seven-fold division was applied not only to the Cosmos, but to
the territory of the State, to its social organization, to its calendar ;
;ind that the seven-storied zikkurat, the winged bulls, etc., andin-

773

338 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

deed, the seven- branched candlestick, were apparently designed as
expressive of the general seven-fold scheme of organization.

Let us now examine some data which shed light upon the various
and curious phases of evolution undergone by the growing and di
verging cults of Heaven and Earth in Babylonia and Assyria.
Going back to the dawn of astronomy in Babylonia let us note
some facts which show that, as elsewhere, in remotest antiquity the
periodical disappearance and reappearance of the Pleiades produced
a deep impression upon the primitive star-gazers. These phenom
ena marked natural divisions of the year and the constellation ap
peared to belong alternately to the visible or upper world and to
the invisible or lower region. A recognition that the Pleaid was the
constellation at that remote period when Taurus led the year, may
be established by the common Euphratean name by which it is said
to have been designated : Kakkab-mnl = the constellation or star.
The Akkadian and Assyrian names which had probably also orig
inally designated Polaris signified that it and the Hyades were
the foundation stars or constellations. In the Ptolemy star charts,
the Pleiades are designated by the name Ki man (see Robert
Brown, op. cit. p. 57). While it appears that whereas the Pleia
des long exerted its influence and, with Polaris and the circum-
polar constellations, regulated and marked the primitive year, its
cult was gradually superseded by that of morning and evening
stars and of the sun and moon which became the emblems of the
rapidly developing divergent cults of the diurnal and nocturnal
heavens, of light and darkness, of the Above and Below.1

l\i\ analytical study of the Babylonian and Assyrian divinities enumerated in Pro
fessor Jastrow's hand-book enables us to detect some of the natural associations of
ideas that influenced the formation of one artilicial theological system after an.
other, all springing from a single root.

The fundamental realization of the antithesis of light and darkness giving rise to
the division of the universe into two distinct parts, the conception of an eternal an
tagonism between both followed and led to the stage of thought set forth by Mr. Rob
ert Brown who tells us (op. cit.} that " the original twins were the Sun and Moon " and
that an archaic cosmogonic legend attached to the third month of Kas (twins) is that
of two hostile brethren and the building of the first city. The great twin-brethren
who join together to build the city are the Sun and Moon, engaged in preserving cos
mic order yet also constantly antagonistic to each other and who constantly chase each
other, one being up when the other is down. Mr. Brown also relates the myth of an.
tagonistic satraps Namaros and Farsondas and states that, in the twin stars, Castor
and Pollux, named by the Euphrateans the great Twins = Mastab-bagal-gal, the Sun
and Moon were re-duplicated. The Euphratean abbreviation is mas = twin or mas-
mas, and Pollux is equated with the fourth antediluvian king Ammenon, a narre de
rived from Akkadian: umun = offspring, an = heaven i.e. the Sun, "the son or
offspring of heaven."
774

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 339

Iii connection with the cult of the Pleiades I draw attention to
R. G. I-Ialiburton's interesting investigations on this particular
subject, and to his publication in the Proceedings of the A. A. A. S.
1895, on " Dwarf survivals and traditions as to pigmy races,"
which contains the following statements : " We find that the At
las dwarfs and the Nanos predict the future by watching the reflec
tion of the ' Seven Stars ' in a bowl. The famous cup of Nestor,
supposed to have been a divining cup, had two groups of Pleiades
on its handle " On examining the archaic designs en
graved in the centre of the fine collection of Phoenician and
Assyrian bronze bowls, which were found in the S. E. Palace, Nim-
roud, and are exhibited at the British Museum, I recently ascer
tained that they appear to be mostly variations on the theme of the
centre and four or seven-fold division, some exhibiting a marked
quadruplicate division, others a seven-pointed star surrounded by
seven smaller stars. In one case a face is repeated four times, in
opposite positions, on the central design which is surrounded by
four large and four lesser conventionally drawn mountains. The
head-dress with lappets which encloses each face recalls the famil
iar Egyptian form, and on two bowls images of scarabs are en
graved. On one of these the beetle is drawn in such a way that its
four legs, two of which turn upwards and two downwards, suggest
the form of a swastika.

The peculiarities of these designs and the knowledge that star-
worship prevailed in Assyria and Phoenicia suggest the inference
that the Nimroud Palace bowls were employed for the observation
of the positions of certain stars which marked the seasons and reg
ulated the calendar, by means of which the priest-kings controlled
the working of the system of state. Doubtlessly the constellations
originally and principally observed besides Polaris were the three
great " seven-fold ones," i. e. the Ursa Major Avhich marked the
Four Quarters ; the Pleiades which pertained to the Above and Be
low and marked the division of the year into halves, and Orion
which also may well have appeared to be a composite image of
the sacred, equal Four, and the central triad composed of the
Above, Middle and Below.

It is interesting to note that in the Euphratean and other myths
the antagonism between sun and moon, etc., coincides with traditions
of actual warfare between their earthly representatives and that it
is the record of a combat between the followers of light and of

775

340 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

darkness that seems to have been thus preserved. The Babylonian
Creation epic teaches us that, in remotest antiquity, the associa
tion of light and life with the male, and darkness and death with
the female principle had become current. A mighty war takes
place between the female serpent Tiamat, associated with evil,
and the male god Marduk, the champion of the gods of the upper
realm, which ends in her overthrow. It was then that Marduk
" established the districts or cities of Ann, Bel and Ea, " identified
with the North, Middle and South. It is remarkable that this
mythical establishment of three cities exactly coincides with the
conclusions reached by recent investigators as to the existence
during centuries, of three rival states, i. e. Babylonia in the south
and Assyria in the northeast, who, during centuries, were in con
tinual warfare with each other and with a third disintegrated power
inhabiting the northwest which was alternately rival or vassal.
This condition of affairs, and the facts enumerated in Professor
Jastrow's handbook, chapter n, are precisely what would naturally
develop from the formation and adoption of three distinct cults and
their ultimate separate establishment in as many centres of govern
ment. The following data will suffice to reveal some of the curious
results obtained by the logical working out of certain associations
of ideas and these results are the more interesting and intelligible
because they are analogous to those I have traced elsewhere.

One point deserves special note : directly opposite views, not
only as to the relative supremacy of the Middle, Above and Below,
but also as to the relation of the sexes to the upper and lower
worlds, seem to have been held at different times and in different
places ; and this particular division of opinion appears to have
given rise to endless dissension, strife and warfare, to the separa
tion of sectarians from the main state and the foundation of num
berless minor centres of government on the old plan, but with
fresh forms of cult embodying a new artificial combination of
ideas.

The shifting of supremacy from one "god" to another explains
moreover the transference of the title " Bel" — Lord, or Chief of
Gods, from the personification of one region to another. " In
remotest antiquity we find En-lil designated as the ' lord of the
lower world ' and bearing the title Bel. En-lil represents the
unification of the various forces whose seat or sphere of action is
among the inhabited parts of the globe, both on the surface and
776

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 341

beneath, for the term ' lower world ' is here used in contrast to
the upper or heavenly world. . . As ' lord of the lower world,'
En-lil is contrasted to a god, Ann, who presides over heavenly
bodies. The age of Sargon. (3800 B. C.), in whose inscriptions
En-lil already oc-curs, is one of considerable culture and there
can, therefore, be no objection against the assumption that at this
early period a theological system should have been evolved which
gave rise to beliefs in great powers whose dominion embraces the
'upper' and 'lower' worlds" (Jastrow, op. cit. pp. 52-55).

A consort, Nin-lil, a "mistress of the lower world," was assigned
to En-lil and was known also as Belit, the feminine form of Bel,
i. e. the lady par excellence. She too had her temple at Nippur,
the age of which goes back, at least, to the first dynasty of Ur.
She was also known as Nin-khar-sag, the "lady of the high or
great mountain," as the ''mother of the gods." The assignment
by Sargon, of the northern gates of his palace to Bel, who lays
foundations, and Belit, who brings fertility, affords evidence that
the goddess was the feminine form of Polaris. In Assyria, Belit
appears, either as the wife of Bel, as the consort of Ashur, as
the consort of Ea, or simply as a designation for Ishtar," i. e.
"the goddess," the "mistress of countries, or of mountains," in
which connection it is interesting to note that the ideographs for
country and mountain are identical in Assyrian.

If the attributes of the goddesses of the Babylonian and Assyr
ian pantheon be carefully examined, they will be found to associate
the female principle with fertility, abundance and with water,
the source of plant life. Two divergent views appear to have in
fluenced the artificial formation of personifications of the female
principle in nature. According to one the goddess is termed the
"lady of the deep, the mistress of the place where the fish dwell"
(Sarpanitam-erua) and in other cases is linked to the lower firma
ment to subterraneous regions, to darkness, death, destructiveness
and hence to evil, thus representing the complement to the male
personification of the upper realm of daylight and the preservative
and beneficent life-giving principles. The other tendency, which
almost appears as a reaction or protest against the previous view,
led to the ultimate adoption of an ideal goddess of the nocturnal
heaven, who was " bountiful, offspring-producing, silvery bright"
and was in one instance addressed as " the lady of shining waters,"
of " purification" and of " incantations." In the period of Ham-

342 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

murabi, devotion went so far as to cause the goddess Gula, termed
the " bride of the earth," to be invoked as the " creator of man
kind," the ft great physician " and u life-giver " and " the one who
leads the dead to a new life " (Jastrow, op. cit. p. 175).

As an interesting outcome of an adjustment of both trains of
thought stands Ishtar-Belit =. the lady par excellence and conse
quently, the feminine personification of Polaris, the supreme god
dess whom Tiglath-pileser termed " the first among the gods."
She is the mild and gracious mother, of creation, " loves the king
and his priesthood," but is also the mighty commanding goddess
of war who clothes herself in fiery flame, appears as a violent de
stroyer and sends down streams of fire upon her enemies. " The
distinguishing position of both the Babylonian and Assyrian Ishtar
is her independent position. Though at times brought into close
contact with Ashur she is not regarded as the mere consort to any
god — no mere reflection of a male deity, but ruling in her own
right on a perfect par with the great gods of the pantheon. She
is coequal in rank and splendor with Ashur. Her name becomes
synonymous for goddess as Marduk becomes the synonym for
god. The female deities, both foreign and native, came to be re
garded as so many forms of Ishtar."

A curious fact connected with Ishtar, which proves that she had
developed from an original divinity, conceived as dual or bi-sexual,
is that among Semites Ishtar appears both as a male and female
deity. This seems to show that at a certain stage of thought Ishtar
was also a centralization of attributes, a fact which undoubtedly
explains the supreme position accorded to this divinity at one time
as the feminine form of Polaris. The most striking illustration
of this supremacy is furnished by the famous bas-relief figured by
Layard (" Ninive and its remains i, 238), which represents Ishtar,
the mother-goddess, the female form of Assur, as seated on a
throne which is borne on the back of a lion in the procession formed
by the seven chief divinities of the Assyrian pantheon, six of
whom are figured as bearded men standing on different animals.
On the fine stela of Esarhaddon, discovered by Dr. von Luschan
at Scndschirli, the goddess, accompanied in this case by three
standing gods, is likewise represented as seated on a throne hold
ing a large ring or circle in her left hand.

The fact that the " All-mother, the female creator of mankind,"
is represented as the only occupant of the throne, reveals a distinct

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 343

phase in the evolution of the Babylonian state religion, which
curiously concurs with the supremacy of female sovereignty at
Babylon, at the period of its greatest power under Semirarnis. It
may be safely assumed that it was at this time, when the queen
represented the goddess, that the cult of the female principle of
nature reached its highest development.

At Nippur the clay images chiefly represent Bel and Belit either
separately or in combination, but figurines of Ishtar have also been
found, in some cases representing her as nursing a child (Jastrovv,
op. cit. p. 674). It is probable that the symbols of duality con
nected with Ishtar had some reference to the mystic unity and
duality of the mother and unborn child, and suggested the instal
lation of the goddess as the most appropriate personification of
creative and life-giving central power.1

It is as interesting to follow the complex train of thought which
created an Jshtar as it is to realize, that curious fact that, contrary
to views held elsewhere, it was the male principle that was at one
time most distinctly associated with earth in Babylonia- Assyria,
while femininity was linked to the nocturnal heaven. It is prob
able that priesthood encouraged the popular adoption of Bel, the
masculine Polaris, as an earth, sun and morning-star god, while
his consort Belit became a heaven, moon and evening-star goddess.
Doubtlessly at an early period the cult of Polaris and the registra
tion of circumpolar rotation was guarded in secrecy by the astrono
mer-priests. Tempting as it is to linger among the gods and god
desses of the Babylonian- Assyrian pantheon and to follow the spread
of their influence, I shall limit myself to pointing out the change of

1 " There are reasons for believing, however, that Sarpanitum, the offspring-produc
ing goddess once enjoyed considerable importance of her own ; that, prior to the rise
of Marduk to his supreme position, a goddess was Avorshipped in Babylon, one of
whose special functions it was to protect the progeny while still in the mother's
womb. A late king of Babylon, the great Nebuchadnezzar, appeals to this attribute
of the goddess. To her was also attributed the possession of knowledge concealed

from men A late ruler of Babylon, Shamash-Shumu-kin, calls her

" the queen of the gods " and declares himself to have been nominated by her to
lord it over men" (Jastrow, op. cit. p. 122).

The following extracts from Assyrian prayers addressed to Ishtar further define
her position at one time: "The producer, queen of heaven, the glorious lady. To
the one who dwells in E-babbara .... To the queen of the gods to whom has
been entrusted the commands of the great gods. To the lady of Nineveh ... To
the daughter of Sin, the twin-sister of ShamasJi, ruling over all kingdoms. Who
issues decrees, the goddess of the universe . . . Besides thee there is no quirting
deity . . ."

779

344 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

government that accompanied the development and establishment
of various divergent cults.

Indications that, as in China at the present day, a combined
heaven and earth cult was practised in Baby Ionia- Assyria by male
and female representatives of heaven and earth, are furnished by
various detached pieces of information gleaned from Professor
Jastrow's work. The priest-king was the "child" of Bel, and his
living representative. As such he bore the divine titles of supreme
lord, ruled the four regions of the earth, and became the represen
tative of earth. Pagan authorities state that a virgin priestess
officiated at times in the sanctuary of Bel and that there were three
classes of priestesses devoted to the cult of Ishtar. They were
called " the sacred ones" and carried out a mysterious ritual which
had, however, originated '• from naive conceptions connected with
the worship of the goddess of fertility."

The use of sacred water and of fermented intoxicating wine
entered into the cult of the life-giving principle and Babylonia ulti
mately becomes associated with " Mystery" and " the golden cup
full of abominations" (Revelations xvn). Large terra cotta
vases or jars have been found at Nippur and elsewhere, standing
in front of the altar, and " the depth at which they were found is
an indication of the antiquity and stability of the forms of worship
in Babylonian temples. It may be proper to recall that, in the
Solomonic temple likewise, there were a series of jars that stood
near the great altar in the court (Jastrovv, p. 653). One of the
oldest sacred basins found in the ruins of a Babylonian temple "has
a frieze of female figures in it, holding in their outstretched hands
flagons from which they pour water, " a fact which establishes the
ritualistic association of female priestesses with water.

The later association of Ishtar with the moon and with the
evening star, "the leader of the heavenly procession of stars," nat
urally exerted an influence over the ceremonial rites performed by
the high priestess or queen, the living image of the goddess.
" Mythological associations appear to have played apart in identi
fying the planet Venus with the goddess ... A widely spread
nature myth, symbolizing the change of seasons, represents Ishtar
the personification of fertility, the great mother of all that mani
fests life, as proceeding to the region of darkness and remaining
there for some time. The disappearance of the planet Venus at
780

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 345

certain seasons .... [and re-appearance] .... suggested the
identification of this planet with Ishtar." The foregoing affords
an explanation why Ishtar should have become identified with
the west and also naturally suggests the probability that the cult
of Ishtar gradually imposed upon its priestesses and its votaries
of the female sex, the ceremonial observance of periods of retire
ment and seclusion, coinciding with the disappearance of the moon
and evening star.

A critical examination of the accounts preserved of the Phoe
nician or Canaauite religion reveals that it consisted of an ideal
istic development of the Ishtar cult of Assyria. The fact that,
ultimately, in Phoenicia, the cult of the female Astarte almost su
perseded that of the male Baal and that their joint cult, introduced
into Palestine, seriously rivalled the monotheism of the Israelites,
furnishes another indication that we have to deal here with the
same marked divergence of cults wrhich we have seen to result
from a common basis in ancient America. In studying the Phoe
nician conception of Astarte as recorded by various authors, one
is struck by its comparative refinement and ideality although, as in
ancient America, the cult of the female principle of nature was also
accompanied by secret licentious ceremonials.

In the Astarte cult of Phoenicia we have precisely what might be
expected to have been evolved by the descendants of an ancient
race of star-watchers who, powerfully impressed by the antithesis
of light and darkness and having become a nation of traders and
seafarers, naturally adopted the nocturnal heaven and guiding
stars as their chief object of worship. It does not seem improb
able that it was to the less degrading association of the female
principle with the nocturnal heaven1 that woman owed, in lapse of
time, the higher position she was accorded in the countries directly
influenced by the Phoenician civilization, and notably in Greece
and Rome,

1 As an illustration of the ideas connected with Astarte it is interesting to note that
fish and doves, inhabitants of the sea and air, became her sacred emblems. The
horns which she is sometimes represented as wearing seem to be not only sym
bolical of the moon, but also to be a remnant of a more ancient form of symbolism
which associated the goddess with the cow. It is stated that, in Canaan, Astarte was
represented under the form of a cow and it will be shown that, in the Egyptian
zodiac Polaris and Ursa Major were represented under the form of a bull or cow or
its thigh. The eye painted on the prow of the ship was also a symbol of the goddess,
an interesting fact considering that the eye expresses a star among other primitive
people.

781

346 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

In Phoenicia, Astarte-Ishtar became the goddess of love and
marriage. Jn Babylonia-Assyria the high-priestess, the living
representative of the goddess, who, like the planet-goddess, peri
odically retired into darkness and seclusion and led a shadowy
existence, appears to have originally shared equal honors with the
" lord of earth" and to have delivered oracular utterances in sub
terraneous chambers. Throughout Babylonia. New Year's Day,
which coincided with the beginning of the rainy season, was the
occasion of " the marriage of the god and the goddess" par ex
cellence, a rite which symbolized the " meeting of Heaven and
Earth." Circumstantial evidence seems to prove, moreover, that,
as in Peru, the annual consecrated union of the male and female
personification of heaven and earth was followed by the marriage
of young persons throughout the land, a custom which furnishes
another indication of the original existence of an annual mating
season for the human race. As it was at this period also that the
priesthood approached the papakhu, the inner sanctuary, also
termed the " assembly-room," " chamber of the oracle " and " of
fates," and transmitted to the people the irrevocable decrees of
Marduk, it seems as though these ancient rulers practised a similar
"abundance of lying and deceit for the ad vantage of the governed"
as that advocated by Plato in his Republic ;' exerted a stern con
trol over the alliances formed and the number of marriages cele
brated and endeavored to make these, as far as possible, sacred.
The mere record that the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal claims to
be the offspring of a pair of divinities personifying heaven and
earth, appears to show that he was the offspring of the sacred di
vine union of the high priest and priestess, i. e. of divine birth.
It is interesting to collate a few disconnected facts which appear
to illustrate the natural and inevitable result of the institution of
two cults ruled by separate representatives.

Sin-Gashid, of the dynasty of Uruk, mentions a temple built
for the god and his consort, as " the seat of their joy." At Baby
lon, the "mother of great gods" dwelt within the precincts of
the temple on the east side of the Euphrates known as Esagila,
" the lofty house." When the city of Babylon extended as far as
to include Borsippa, the temple known as Ezida, ''the true house,"
was built for Marduk = Bel. At Lagush the temple of the "good
lady " and mother stood in one quarter known as the " brilliant

1 Book v, Chaps, vui-x.

782

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 347

town " while the temple of her consort stood in the other of the
two most ancient quarters of the town. The above facts acquire
double significance when collated with the well-known fact that the
palace of Semiramis, the great queen of Babylon, was built on
the west bank of the Euphrates, opposite to the ancient palace of
the king. A bridge united these royal residences which were
otherwise separated by the river.

Under Semiramis, Babylonia was a nation under a single female
ruler and this usurpation of power by a woman, accompanied as
it was by the predominance of the originally naive cult which had
unconsciously fostered and ministered to perversion and depravity,
preceded the decadence, disintegration and ultimate downfall of
the empire. Many centuries previous, the instalment of a female
sovereign preceded the ruin of another empire in what we may
assume to have been precisely the same way.

Professor Sayce informs us that, " about 3800 B. C., in north-'
ern Babylonia and in the city of Agade or Akkad, arose the empire
of Sargani-sarali=: Sargon, and that Sargon's sou, Naram-Sin,
succeeded him in 3750 B. C. and continued the conquests of his
grandfather. . . . . . Naram-Sin's son was Bingam-sar-ali.

A queen, Ellat-gula, seems to have sat upon the throne not much
later, and with her the dynasty may have come to an end. At any
rate the empire of Akkad is heard of no more. But it left behind
it a profound impression in western Asia, Those art and culture
became Babylonian" (op. cit.).

The process of disintegration, which caused the Babylonian empire
to crumble away, was doubtlessly hastened by its division into four
regions, each of which in latter times possessed its capital and
became the centre of various independent forms of rival cults.
During many centuries Babylonia was closely associated with the
cult of Marduk-Bel, the "lord of rest;" while Shamash, another
form of the central supreme lord, was the deity of Larsa and Sip-
par.

At one time Ur became the headquarters for the cult of the moon-
god Sin or Nannar. As, according to Babylonian notions, the sun
does not properly belong to the heavens and plays an insignificant
part in the calendrical system in comparison with the moon, sun-
worship proper does not seem to have existed in Babylonia. At
the same time it would seem as though when the " primitive sun" =
Polaris became the hidden, secret god of the priest-astronomers,

783

348 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

who determined the seasons by Ursa Major, the populace was
taught to regard Bel as the personification of the diurnal sun and
of the herald of day, the morning star.

When it is borne in mind how, as the empire spread, new cities
were founded on the plan of the metropolis, that each of these
must therefore have been, in turn, governed by a pair of minor
rulers, and had its own minor zikkurat, we can understand the
various indications that exist showing how the ancient sacred cap
ital of the state became the place of reunion for the minor " gods,"
who assembled there annually in the main sanctuary, and the fact
that each minor chief necessarily required his dwelling place and
tribal council-chamber, would account for the " references to zik-
kurats ... or special sanctuaries of some kind, which were
erected within the sacred precinct of the main capital . . . ."
(Jastrow, p. 637) .

When it is realized that each zikkurat was an artificial u moun
tain " the description of Babylon in Revelations xvm becomes
clearly intelligible and is seen to apply to the seven-fold organiza
tion of the ancient empire which had become the centre of the
debasing earth-worship ultimately identified with a female goddess.
"• And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reign-
eth over the kings of the earth .... I saw a woman sit upon a
scarlet colored beast . . . having seven heads . . . The seven
heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth ....
and there are seven kings" ....

Future investigation will doubtlessly furnish us with exact knowl
edge concerning the original relation of the governors of the "four
regions " to the central ruler and of the u seven divisions " of the
state to each other. It would be desirable to establish whether
each territorial division and tribe bore the name of its tribal ances
tor and whether these names agree with those of the seven chief
" gods" of the pantheon, each of whom is associated with a celes
tial body, a day of the seven-day period and, as shown in the bas-
relief already cited, with a different animal. I am strongly tempted
to see in the latter traces of tribal totems and to connect the days
of the week with the seven divisions of the population and some
established form of rotation, employed for the government of the
state, analogous to that I have found out in Ancient Mexico.
With regard to the regulation of the calendar by certain officials,
the following facts are important : Professor Sayce tells us that,
784

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 349

fct in Assyria, the high-priest was the equal of the king and the king
himself was a priest and the adopted child of Bel." Under him were
a number of grades of officials and officers. The land was divided
into provinces whose " governors were selected from the highest
aristocracy and who alone had the privilege of sharing with the king
the office of limmu or eponymous archon after whom the year was
named." This office, which finds its analogy in China and Central
America, is more clearly explained in the following passage : ''The
Assyrians were endowed with a keen sense of history and had in
vented a system of reckoning time by means of certain officers called
limmi, who gave their names to the year " (Sayce, op. cit. p. 255).
Venturing to make a general statement, as a suggestion for
future investigation, I should say that the ultimate result of the
institution of two cults which were bound to grow in opposite direc
tions, was the fall of the Babylonian empire under the degrading
growth of perversion and depravity, linked to the cult of earth and
night and bi-sexuality, and the rise of the Assyrian empire with a
cult in which the ideas of light and darkness, night and day prepon
derated over those of sex. It may possibly have been as a reaction
and protest against the prevailing rites of Babylonia that influenced
the Assyrians in their adoption of two male rulers, the high-priest
and the king. On the other hand, there are indications showing
that possibly, in order to evade the ceremonial obligations of their
position as the representative of the principle of fertility, several
" goddesses " or female rulers of Babylonia transferred their seat
of government, or placed the reins of government into the hands
of a king. Thus Hammurabi tells us that he has restored the
temple of the "lady" or "great lady" of Hallabi, a town near
Sippar and that she had conferred upon him supreme authority over
the Babylonian states, then engaged in fighting with each other.
It is obvious that, as soon as concealment and mystery increasingly
surrounded the cult of the female principle, and warfare became
habitual, the power and role of the female ruler must have become
more and more "shadowy" and finally dwindled to the utterance
of sacred oracles in dark concealed places of retirement and safety.
Ultimately the cult of Ishtar appears to have become absolutely
secret and hidden and shrouded in mystery and darkness. Its priest
esses became the most famous oracle-givers of Assyria who impart
ed "divine knowledge concealed from men. " In the eighth century
B. C., Arbela became the centre of the cult oflshtar and "developed
p. M. PAPERS I 50 785

350 KEY-NOTE OP ANCIENT

a special school of theology marked by the attempt to accord a su*
perior position to the goddess. In a series of eight oracles addressed
to Esarhaddon six are given forth by women" (Jastrow, p. 342).
Inevitable as was the disintegration of the original state and re
ligion, continual efforts appear to have been made even in Baby
lonia itself, to check the growth of a debasing ritual and the constant
increase of the gods and goddesses which were installed as the
rulers of each new town that was founded on the plan of the me
tropolis. Professor Jastrow tells us that '• whenever the kings in
their inscriptions mention the regular sacrifices, it is in almost all
cases with reference to their re-institution of an old custom that
had been allowed to fall into neglect (owing to the political dis
turbances which always affected the temples) and not as an inno
vation " . . . (op. tit. p. 667). The tablet of Sippara, on
which the image of Shamash is restored by the king on an ancient
model, has already been described and on it appears the four-spoked
wheel, the expressive symbol of a "primitive Sun." The prime
val conception of a single, stable, changeless and central celestial
power was evidently adhered to in ancient Babylonia by a small
but faithful minority, and the constant growth of debasing prac
tices and the manufacture of symbolical images to which rever
ence was paid and which were ultimately worshipped, awakened
its constant disapproval and abhorrence. At a remote period we
find the adherents to a stern monotheism establishing the Babylonian
province of

CANAAN.

The following account of the Hebrew religion, translated from
Spamer's work (p. 297) already cited, will be found instructive :

"Originally there was no difference between the religion of the
Hebrews and that of the neighboring tribes. The lord = Baal of
Moab was named Kamosh, that of the Hebrews Yahwe. Yahwe
was the national god, above all the god of battle Al
tars made of earth or unhewn stone were erected for him on
mountains, hills or under green trees ; next to the altar stood
either a stone column (Masseba) or a sacred tree (Ashera). In
the temple the image of Yahwe represented him in human form or,
as in Dan or Bethel, in that of a bull. Next to Yahwe were other
gods : first, Baal, the supreme lord of the world, who had a
special temple in Jerusalem ; secondly, Astarte. to whom Solomon
built an altar near Jerusalem.
786

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 351

" Solomon had also built altars to Kamosh, the god of the Mo-
abites, to Milkom, the god of the Ammonites and in his temple
other gods beside Yahwe were worshipped ; amongst them a demi
god and a serpent of brass (Xeshushtan) which was abolished later
on by Hiskia. All of these gods, who were also worshipped by
the neighbors of the enemies of Israel, became secondary to the
tribal god to whom Israel owed its greatness.

" Yahwe becomes the first and mightiest, and is identified with
El, the supreme god of the Semites, whose individuality is vague.
On the other hand ' the Baal/ the principal god of all neighbor
ing people, especially of the Phoenicians, possesses a marked in
dividuality which excludes his identification with other gods. He
is worshipped in separate centres of cult and becomes the rival
of Yahwe. . . ." The rivalry and the struggle for religious and
political supremacy between the priests, prophets and followers of
Yahwe, the god of heaven, and Baal, the lord of earth, culminated
in about B. C. 837, when the temple of the latter was destroyed
and his priesthood killed.

" It was not until about 750 B.C., however, that the national god
Yahwe became the acknowledged sole god of the universe next to
whom all other gods were as mere phantoms .... A remark
able transformation took place about this time in the conception
of a divinity and of morality ; the moral precepts of religion were
developed and clearly formulated and the ten commandments pro
mulgated. As time progressed the voices of prophets and priest
hood became more and more loud in condemnation of the use of
idols and symbols of divinity. Hosea especially denounced the
cult of Yahwe under the form of a bull ; Jeremias went so far as
to disapprove of the holy ark itself which stood in the temple of
Jerusalem.

"Later on, when, about B. C. 621, one of the most important
events in the history of mankind had taken place and the book of
the law, the Sepher Hathora, was discovered by the high priest in
the temple of Jerusalem, during its restoration, the Hebrew reli
gion was reformed, reorganized and reestablished on lines which
favored the development of more refined and elevated religious
teachings. All idols and symbols were abolished. Naught could
destroy, however, the deeply rooted idea that it was in Jerusalem
alone, or Mount Sion, that Yahwe was to be worshipped. This

787

352 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

was the chosen site to which offerings and tithes were to be carried.
As the chosen people of Yahvve, Israel was also to be a holy na
tion which was to distinguish itself by its superior religion and
morality and, in order to do so. was to keep itself rigidly apart and
aloof from other people.

" Thus this little nation cultivated and perfected the religious
capabilities of the human race and laid the foundation for Chris
tianity and the Islam."

Jerusalem, the ancient capital, occupied almost the centre of Ca
naan and was founded on Mount Zion, the highest elevation in the
district. From time immemorialJerusalem has indeed contained a
spot reputed to mark the centre of the world and a sacred stone is
also venerated there to this day and is now associated, in a curious
way, with the biblical account of Jacob's dream of a ladder reach
ing from earth to heaven.

It was obviously as a result of their deeply ingrained ideal of
central power that the Israelites who migrated from Ur, the seat
of moon-worship, and wandered into Palestine, engaged in a long
struggle which ended in their successful capture, in 1050 B. C., of
Jerusalem, the sacred city, situated in the centre of the land. The
importance of this conquest to the Israelites can only be rightly es
timated when it is realized that, during countless centuries, this sin
gle branch of the Semitic race had adhered to the cult of the central,
changeless, ever-present and light-giving guiding star, and grad
ually developed the higher conception of an invisible, omnipotent
and omniscient God. It will be seen that, while other branches of
their race gradually developed separate cults of the dual principles
of nature, they had remained faithful to the primeval recognition
of a single pole-star and, rising to a loftier conception, constituted
themselves the champions of a pure monotheism, disconnected from
the cult of heaven and earth or sun and moon which, associated
with dual reproductive principles, justly became the horror and
abomination of the Israelites. It is interesting to recall the fact
that, about 908 B. C., Jezebel, the wife of Ahab and daughter
of the king of Tyre, set up the cult of the dual principles of na
ture in Israel and, destroying the priests and prophets of Jehovah,
built a temple to Baal and Astarte and appointed 450 priests and
500 prophets to the respective service of these divinities. This his
torical incident furnishes a striking instance of the united cult of
788

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 353

the Above and Below in direct antagonism to that of the Centre
which had already developed into a definite and pure monotheism.1

ASSYRIA.

A study of the Assyrian symbols of royalty, which I recently
had an opportunity of making at the British Museum, has led me
to the conclusion that, in Assyria, during many centuries, a perfect
equilibrium was maintained throughout the state which, by a strict
coordination of all its parts, represented a harmonious entity.

An observation I have made, which may be worth noting, is that
Assyria seems to occupy, in relation to Babylonia, somewhat the
same position as Peru to the more ancient and greater centres of
culture in Mexico and Central America. In the latter the original
ground-plan of the archaic civilization seems to be lost and hidden
under the ruin and devastation caused by the growth of diverging
cults. In Peru and Assyria alike we seem to have examples of
organizations starting afresh on the old plan or reversions to the
primitive type of civil and religious government in which simplicity,
order, balance and harmony were again restored and maintained.
If I may venture to hazard a general observation about the ancient
civilizations of Western Asia I should say that, whereas the pri
meval centre of primitive pole-star worship in Babylonia had, in
course of time, brought forth as its highest development the mono
theism of the Israelites, and as its lowest the cults of Ishtar and

1 "That the Hebrew and Babylonian traditions [of the Creation] spring from a com
mon source is so evident as to require no further proof. The agreements are too
close to be accidental. At the same time the variations in detail point to an inde
pendent elaboration of the traditions on the part of the Hebrews and Babylonians

It is in Babylonia that the thought would naturally arise of making

the world begin with the close of the storms and rains in the spring. The Terahites
must, therefore, have brought those cosmological traditions with them upon migrat
ing from the Euphrates Valley to the Jordan district . . . The intercourse, politi
cal and commercial, between Palestine and Mesopotamia was uninterrupted
The so-called Babylonian exile brought Hebrews and Babylonians once more side
by side .... A direct borrowing [of traditions] from the Babylonians has not
taken place and while the Babylonian records are in all probability much older than
the Hebrew, the latter again contain elements, as Gunkel has shown, of a more prim
itive character than the Babylonian production. This relationship can only satis
factorily be explained on the assumption that the Hebrews possessed the traditions
upon which Genesis narrative rests, long before the Babylonian exile, when the
story appears, indeed, to have received its final and present shape .... Yah we
is assigned the r6ie of Bel-Marduk, the division of the work of creation into six days

is definitely made and some further modifications introduced " (Jastrow,

op. cit. pp. 452-453).

789

354 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Bel, it also appears to have given birth to a reproduction of its
former self, to the Assyrian empire, in which the most ancient form
of culture was preserved intact, and in time spread its influence
not only to other nations but also back to Babylonia itself.

As in Peru, it appears to have been the policy of the kings of
Assyria, who had before them the results of an opposite course
pursued at Babylonia, to discountenance the manufacture of sym
bolical images and the establishment of minor centres of govern
ment, the leading motive being to maintain the ideal of an absolute
centralization of temporal and spiritual government and power.
It is the opinion of leading Assyriologists that Assyria was a
colony founded by Semitic Babylonians and this conclusion is cor
roborated by the view I have advanced, namely, that, as Babylonia
degenerated and abandoned the primeval ideas which nourished
the germ of monotheism, those who adhered to this ideal after pro
longed struggles separated themselves from their ancient mother,
and founded new colonies, the administration and religion of which
they established according to their wider experience and more ad
vanced intellectual and moral development. A characteristic of
Assyria seems to have been the institution of two male rulers, the
high-priest and the king and the cult of the diurnal and nocturnal
heaven, of day and night. As these features are in marked contrast
to the Babylonian male and female rulers and the cult of heaven and
earth and the reproductive principles, it would seem as though they
had developed themselves from a prolonged cult of heaven alone
by the inhabitants of Northern Babylonia, or that they were the
result of a reform led about by the abuses to which the Babylonian
cult had led. A curious development worth mentioning, even out
of its chronological order, was when the Assyrian king Esarhad-
don placed his two sons as single rulers upon the thrones of Baby
lonia and Assyria. It is known that these two brothers ruled in
peace during twenty years and that then a great rebellion against
the Assyrian rule took place, which ended in the conquest and de
struction of Babylonia and the death of its king, whose half-brother,
the Assyrian ruler Asurbanipal, thus became the sole ruler of Assy
ria and Babylonia.

Professor Jastrow tells us that, "as compared with Babylonia,

Assyria was poor in the number of her temples The

Assyrian rulers were much more concerned in rearing grand edi
fices for themselves. While the gods were not neglected in
790

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 355

Assyria, one hears much more of the magnificent palaces erected
by the kings than of temples and shrines."

The above data suffice to show that the tendency of the As
syrian monarchs was to indulge in self-glorification and to forget
what some of his subjects never could : that his position had orig
inally been that of an earthly representative only of a higher cen
tral, celestial power. As among some branches of the Semitic
race, the conception of a divinity became more and more elevated
until it reached the ideal of the Yahwe, "the only true god who
was jealous of other gods and could brook none beside him." To
these uncompromising adherents of pure monotheism the royal
titles of the Assyrian kings who styled themselves the rulers of the
centre, of the four quarters of the earth and of the heavens, must
indeed have appeared as a sacrilege.

The existence of such opposite views clearly explains the ulti
mate outbreak of hatred and war between monotheistic Israel and
Juda and the ancient empires of Western Asia which shared,
with them, a remote but common origin.

Returning to Assyria we find that this empire also, as it extend
ed its four- fold capital Assur into four provinces and developed
the cult of the high central power and the Heaven and Earth,
gradually prepared in turn its own downfall by an inevitable
process of disintegration. In time two great capitals grew up,
situated to the northeast and northwest of the ancient metrop
olis of Assur, the original seat of the u kings of the four regions. "
These capitals were Ninive, divided into four cities, and Arbela,
also a ^ four-city." The fact that the latter capital was the seat
of Ishtar worship, further proves that, at one time, a definite sep
aration of cults had also supervened in Assyria and that Assur
and Ninive may at one time have been respectively centres of
Polaris and sun worship. It is well known that when about B. C.
606 the great Assyrian empire was destroyed, it had four royal
residences: Ninive, Dur-Sarrukin, Kalash and Assur, which were
then burnt and levelled to the ground, never to be rebuilt.

Let us no\v examine the emblems of '' divine royalty" exhibited
on the famous portrait stelae of Assyrian kings preserved at the
British Museum which strikingly confirm the view I advanced that
the four-spoked wheel of Shamash on the Sippara tablet was the
ancient restored image of the u primitive sun" Polaris and of cir-
cumpolar rotation.

791

356 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

The Assyrian kings on the British Museum stelae are represent
ed as wearing the cross, between the signs for the moon and planet
Venus, that occurs on the Sippara tablet. The four-spoked wheel
thus explains itself as a " wheel-cross " and is found to have been
employed in Assyria alternately with the plain cross ; for the
portrait statue of Asurnasirpal (about B. C. 880) represents the
king wearing a chain about his neck from which hangs a cross be
tween the Ishtar and moon emblems, and next to a symbol repre
senting the lightning bolt of Ramman. In the background, next
to the king's head, five emblems are sculptured, three of which are
identical with those hanging from the chain, i. e. the eight-rayed
u sun" of Ishtar, the moon Sin and the lightning bolt of Ramman.
The fifth emblem consists of the royal conical cap with four horns
and is represented separately to the right while the other four
symbols form a compact group.

In the text Assur, Ramman, Sin, Shamash and Ishtar are in
voked. As the symbols of Ishtar and Sin can be identified by
the Sippara tablet, and the winged disk unquestionably pertains
to Assur and the lightning bolt to Ramman, we find that the cap,
simulating the central " holy mound "with four horns, must be the
symbol of the remaining god Shamash. This inference appears to
be corroborated by the circumstance that the seventh month was
sacred to Shamash and that it was in this month that the lord of
the holy mound built the seven-staged tower of Babylon. These
facts authorize us to formulate the conclusion that the four-spoked
wheel of the Sippara tablet, the cross hanging to the king's chain
and the four- horned cap which, like the " square altar with four
horns," simulated the " holy mound," were alike symbols of Sha
mash, the " primitive Sun. "

On his portrait-stela king Shamsi-Rammanu the younger (B. C.
825-812), the grandson of Asurnasirpal, wears the cross only,
hanging from his neck-chain and in the text invokes, according to
Dr. von Luschan, only Nindar, who has been proven to be Shamash
under another name or title. Nindar is identified in Professor Jas-
trow's hand-book with Ninsia, "a god of considerable importance,
imported perhaps from some ancient site of Lagash "... who
"disappeared from the later pantheon." . . . (op. cit. pp. 90 and
91 ). It is interesting to find that the king, who like his ancient pred
ecessor the Patesi or religious chief Shamsi-Ramman (B. C. 1850)
bears the name of the god Shamash, wears as his only ornament
792

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 357

the cross which so obviously expresses the royal title, " lord of
the four regions. "

From Professor Jastrow (p. 107), we learn that it was custom
ary for the early rulers of Babylon, at the beginning or the close
of their dedicatory inscriptions, to parade a list of the divinities
associated with the districts that they controlled. Gudea, for in
stance, enumerates eighteen deities, and these may be taken as
indicative of the territorial extent of Gudea's jurisdiction. This
custom affords an interesting explanation of the sculptured emblems
of divinities and the invocations of their names on the above stelae
and shows that Asurnasirpal and his grandson ruled four districts
from a fifth situated in the centre, whose emblem was the mound
with four horns or the cross, both emblems of the royal " lord of
the four regions. "

Bearing this custom in mind, we next note that, on his stela at the
British Museum, Shalmaneser II, the son of Asurnasirpal, invokes
not only three different divinities, but also one more than his
father or son. His invocation is to Ashur, Shamash and Ishtar
and to the Babylonian triad Anu, Bel and Ea. The emblems
of the first three divinities are the same as on the stelae of his
father and son, i.e. the winged disk, the mound-shaped, horned
cap and the eight-rayed star. To Anu, Bel and Ea pertain the
emblematic lightning bolt and moon which are clearly visible ; and
a third, almost effaced, group which, upon examination by Mr.
Pinches, revealed the presence of six stars or circles. Dr. von
Luschan infers that originally the group consisted of seven circles
and was the same as that sculptured on the stelae of Sargou (at
Berlin), the bas-reliefs at Nahr-el-Kelb and at Bavian. On each
of these the circles are grouped in two horizontal rows of three
circles while the seventh circle stands to the right, in front and
midway between both rows.

If we assume that the lightning bolt pertained to Anu, the upper,
and the moon, the emblem of Night, to Ea, the lower firmament,
we find that the seven-fold group falls to the lot of Bel and seems
to coincide exactly with the recorded fact that the famous
zikkurat of Bel at Babylon, for instance, consisted of seven
stories ; and that it was known as " the house of the seven divisions
[regions] of the world, " and that Babylon actually was at one
time a seven-fold state, with seven '• mountains " r= gods = earthly
rulers.

793

358 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Final, positive proof that Assyria, under Sargon II and Esar-
baddon, like ancient Baby Ion, was organized into seven "districts,''
seems to be furnished by the seven symbols carved on their stelae,
accompanied by the group of seven circles which obviously ex
presses the same as the cuneiform character in the inscribed invo
cation, namely, the word "seven-fold-one" or " seven in one,"1
which was obviously an appropriate designation for the empire as
a whole, consisting as it did of seven tribal districts, associated
with the seven directions in space to each of which was assigned a
god, a mountain house, a color, an animal, a celestial body, a day
and a symbol.

An extremely suggestive juxtaposition of the numeral seven and
a circle containing a group of five circles, resembling a flower with
four petals, occurs on the Bavian tablet already cited, on which
are also carved two emblems : the moon and winged disk ; one com
pact detached group consisting of four altars (three surrounded by
horns and one surmounted by a ram's head) and a second de
tached group consisting of a base into which four staffs or scep
tres are inserted. These recur on the fine Sendschirli stela of
Esarhaddon about which a few words remain to be said. It ex
hibits the numeral seven = the " seven in one " sign before the king,
accompanied by four divinities mounted on animals, the first two
being the god riding a double monster, and the seated goddess,
both wearing the cone on the high royal cap. Carved close to the
king's hand is the group of four staffs or sceptres, inserted in a
horizontal base, which appear to be the emblems of his lordship
over the four regions. bk Three of these are the same as on the
Bavian relief : the first surmounted by a cone-shaped object2 be
neath which are two hanging ends of ribbons ; the second con
sisting of a plain single staff, split so as to form two ; the third sur
mounted by two animal heads, each with a single horn. The fourth

1 Dr. von Luschan (op. cit. p. 22) translates this cuneiform sign, which exists in
Babylonian and Assyrian forms, as " Siebeneinigkeit " and emphasizes the fact that it
is employed in the singular form. The inference that it may designate not only the
rieiades but more probably Ursa Major corroborates the view that the mystic number
seven impressed itself upon the human mind by its association with the Septentriones.

2 The fact that the mountain was the symbol of the centre olthe earth and of Bel,
throws light upon the meaning of the clay cones which were "very common votive
objects in Babylonia especially in the earlier periods. " They would have been
appropriately used in the cult of Baal, the personification of the male principle, and
are indeed usually represented as offered by male worshippers. That the cones
in some cases represented the conical bunch of the male blossom of the palm tree may
also be conjectured.

704

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 359

sceptre on Esarhaddon's stela is like that represented as inserted
into one of the altars on the Bavian stela, and terminates in a re
curved ram's head. The fourth in the Bavian group of sceptres
somewhat resembles the trident tripartite emblem which occurs on
the Sargon stela and the Esarhaddon stela of Nahr-el-Kelb (fig
ured by Dr. Luschan, op. cit. p. 20).

A fresh examination of the bas-relief of Maltaya, described by
Layard and already alluded to, reveals a suggestive differentiation
in the representations of the seven divinities in a row, at each end
of which, facing the procession, stands a king. Considering that
in Assyria there were governors, the limmi, who held offices of
limited duration and gave their names to their years of office, the
query naturally suggests itself whether the two '• kings " may not
also have ruled for fixed periods of seven years, each one of which
bore the name of one of the seven divisions.

It being an accepted fact that the institution of the Sabbath was
of Chaldean and Babylonian origin, it is permissible to assign to
the same source the institution of the seven-year period described in
Leviticus xxv : " But the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest
unto the land . . . . And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths
of years unto thee, seven times seven years ; and the space of the
seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty-nine years . . .
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year " . . . .

Addressing to Assyriologists an appeal for fuller knowledge con
cerning the ancient calendar periods of Babylonia-Assyria, I now
revert to the Maltaya bas-relief and point out that, of the seven di
vinities, the two principal ones, a god and goddess, wear a form of
cap encircled by horns and surmounted by a cone. One of these two
deities is distinguished from all others by his larger size and by
the fact that he stands on a double animal and heads the procession
holding a recurved sceptre in his hand. Behind him follows the
goddess Ishtar, holding a large ring in her right hand. Her throne,
as on the Sendschirli stela, exhibits a ring surmounting its high
back, to the side of which a group of four circles or disks are at
tached. As several centres of Ishtar cult, already mentioned,
have been designated as fourfold cities it seems possible that the
four disks alluded to this fact, while the ring crowning the top of
the throne, and that she holds, constitutes one of her emblems . . .
However this may be, both monuments exhibit kings associated
with the number seven and Ishtar, the seated goddess, associated

795

360 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

with the number four ; facts which claim further investigation and
may lead to interesting verifications of the numerical systems of
the Assyrians. It should be mentioned here that the heads of the
five remaining divinities, on the Maltaya bas-relief, are surmounted
by a wheel with spokes and that one holds a recurved sceptre, like
that of the first, another bears the lightning bolt of Ramrnan,
while three carry the same peculiar double symbol also held by
Shamash on the Sippara tablet. It consists of a large ring like
that held by Ishtar and a short staff possibly a fire-stick. In
each case the fingers of the right hand of the deity clasp the
middle of the staff and the ring and the appearance of the com
bined rod and circle closely resembles the upper portion of the
Egyptian crux ansata. Professor von Luschan has, indeed, ex
pressed the opinion that the ring or circle (of Ishtar) the rod and
circle (of Shamash) and the crux ansata must have analogous
meanings, a view I fully share and shall further support in dealing
with the Egyptian symbol.

The following data will be found to substantiate further the evi
dence produced concerning the seven-fold organization of Baby
lonia-Assyria. One of the finest bas-relief tablets at the British
Museum excavated by Layard from the ruins of Asurnasirpal's
palace at Nimroud represents in its centre the sacred convention
alized ashera = tree, above which is the winged circle, from the
centre of which issues the half figure of the god Assur (cf. fig.
71, 1). To its right stand two winged figures wearing the conical
crown with four horns, and necklaces from which hang its repro
duction in miniature, also the cross, the symbol of Ishtar and the
moon. To the left of the tree stand two personages, wearing the
high cap with a flat top, central cone and hanging ends, such as are
frequently represented as worn by the kings. The natural inference
would be that the winged figures wearing the cap with horns repre
sent high-priests and that a double hierarchy corresponding to the
dual monarchy probably existed at onetime, the result being "four
lords, " two celestial and two terrestrial, corresponding to the
u four regions," two of which pertained to the Above or the
heaven and two to the Below or earth. A curious indication that
at one time there were four separate rulers of the four regions is
furnished by the cap with four horns and the altar whose four cor
ners terminated in horns, when they are connected with the passage
in Revelations xvn, which refers to Babylonian symbolism and
79 G

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 361

states : '-And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings." Pro
fessor J as trow states that " similar horns existed on the Hebrew
and Phoenician altars, " and that " if we may believe Herodotus,
the great altars at Babylon were made of gold " (p. 652).

Doubtlessly, Assyrian texts contain a fund of information yet
inaccessible to students, concerning the constitution of the state
and the modifications it may have undergone in course of time.
An exhaustive study of the symbols connected with Assyrian kings
at different dates, in connection with the text relating his conquests
and foundations of temples, may yet reveal the occasional assump
tion or usurpation by a single individual of different degrees of
power and, possibly, the ultimate separation and antagonism of
hierarchy and monarchy.

The employment in Assyria and Babylonia of the tree, as a sacred
symbol, should next be considered, first, in relation to the other
symbols to which great religious importance was attached. The
significance of the zikkurat, or seven-staged tower, has already been
discussed. Another feature was "the great basin known as 'Apsu,'
the name, it will be recalled, for ' the deep ' [i. e. the lower firma
ment]. The name indicates that it was a symbolical representa
tion of the domain of Ea. The zikkurat itself being an attempt
to reproduce the shape of the earth, the representation of the
4 apsu ' would suggest itself as a natural accessory to the temple.
The zikkurat and the basin together would thus become the living
symbols of the current cosmological conceptions. The compari
son with the great ' sea ' that stood in the court of Solomon's
temple, naturally suggests itself, and there can be little doubt that
the latter is an imitation of a Babylonian model" (Jastrow, op.
cit. 658). It is evident from the above that the adoption of the
sacred basin as the symbol of Ea would naturally be simultaneous
with that of miniature "basins" and water bowls and jars, em
ployed for holding the sacred water used in the cult of the Below.
Reflection shows that, in the zikkurat, the seat of Bel = the image
of the earth, and in the " Apsu " the watery deep and lower fir
mament of Ea, we have the sacred emblems of two deities of the
Babylonian triad only. The emblem of Anu, the Heaven or upper
firmament, is missing and it is naturally in the cult of Anshar =
Ashur that it must be sought for. The following data will suffi
ciently show that it was the tree or pole and, in all probability, the
fire-stick that were connected with the cult of An-shar — all that

362 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

is above," or " on high." The resemblance of the name Ashurto
the word for tree or pole, the a Ashera" of the Phoenicians and
Hebrews, suggests, moreover, the probability of their common
origin.

An interesting question on which I have not, as yet, been able
to obtain information, relates to the mode of producing fire, re
sorted to by the Babylonian- Assyrians. The element was, of
course, associated witli heaven, and the fire-god under the name of
Gibil or Nusku wras termed the " son of Ann." Shamash himself
also figures as a personification of 'fire and it seems probable that,
in the Babylonian temples in the centre of the square altar, a fire
was originally kept perpetually burning as an image of Polaris.
As great stress is laid upon the purifying effect of fire as on that
of water in Babylonian literature, it is easy to trace the origin
of the offering of burnt sacrifices to the idea that, cast into the
sacred fire, they became purified and absorbed into its essence, i. e.
accepted by the sacred living image of the central star-god. It
seems extremely probable that the primitive employment of a fire-
stick by the priesthood, for the production of " celestial fire," may
have played an important role in causing the stick, and thence the
pole and tree, to have become the adopted symbol of Ann. So
little is known even about the origin of " tree-worship " itself in
ancient Babylonia- Assyria that Professor Jastrow advances the
following statement (p. 689).

"On the seal cylinders there is frequently represented a pole or
a conventionalized form of a tree, generally in connection with a
design illustrating the wrorship of a deity. This symbol is clearly
a survival of some tree worship that was once popular. The com
parison with the ashera and pole worship among Phoenicians and
Hebrews is fully justified and is a proof of the great antiquity
of the symbols which, without becoming a formal part of the later
cult, retained in some measure a hold upon the popular mind.

" 'Ashur' became the god of Assyria as the rulers of the city
of Ashur grew in power ... in the various changes of official
residences that took place in the course of Assyrian history. . . .
the god took part and his central seat of worship depended upon

the place that the kings chose for their official residence

there was always one place — the official residence — which formed
the central spot of worship. There the god was supposed to dwell
for the time being. One factor, perhaps, that ought to be taken
798

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 363

into consideration, in accounting for this movable disposition of the
god was that he was not symbolized exclusively by a statue. . . .
His chief symbol was a standard that could be carried from place
to place. . . The standard consisted of a pole surrounded by a
disk enclosed within two wings, while above the disk stood the
figure of a warrior in the act of shooting an arrow (cf. fig. 65, 5)
. . . . The standard . . . which was so made that it could be
carried into the thick of the fray in order to assure the army of the
god's presence1 . . . followed the camp everywhere and when the
kings chose to fix upon a new place for their military encampment
. . . the standard would repose in the place selected" (Jastrow,
op. cit. p. 194). ! To one who like myself has devoted years to the
study of the symbolism of primitive people and is familiar with the
ancient Mexican image of the " lord of the North " standing in the
centre of a horizontally- placed cross-figure, and with the Chichime-
can custom, on taking possession of new territory, to shoot arrows
towards the cardinal points, the Ashur standard suggests a single
explanation, namely, that it was the symbol of celestial, central
rulership and that the god, standing on a staff which could be
turned and aiming his arrow towards the four directions in succes
sion, was an expressive image of Polaris and Septentriones.

Further ideas associated with the tree by the Babylonian-Assyr
ians are clear since Professor E. B. Tylor has so conclusively
show^n that certain bas-reliefs represent the act of artificially fertil
izing the palm tree by scattering the male blossom from its cone-
shaped bunch, over the female palm. In each case this rite is
being performed by figures with human bodies and large wings, i. e.
high priests of heaven, and it seems evident that it symbolized
the mystic life-producing union of heaven and earth or of the
male and female principles of nature which marked the Babylonian-

1 An interesting complement to this is furnished by the texts of oracular messages
sent by the goddess Ishtar to King Ashurbanapal who seems to have been a fervent
disciple of the theological school of Arbela. On one occasion, when the king's army
was in a predicament, Ishtar appears at night and declares: " I walk infrontof
Ashurbanapal, the king, who is the creation of my hands." On another occasion the
oracle-giving medium reports to the king: " Ishtar, dwelling in Arbela, came with
quivers hung on her right and left sides with a bow in her hand and girded with a
pointed unsheathed sword. Before thee [i. e. the king] she stood and like the mother
that bore thee [with maternal kindness] Ishtar, supreme among the gods, addressed
thee commanding: 'Be encouraged [literally, lookup] for the fray. "Wherever
thou art, I am. ' " The images of Ashur aiming his arrow and Ishtar with an un
sheathed pointed sword recall the biblical description of the naming sword which
turned everyway, to keep the way of the tree of life (Genesis ill).

799

364 KKY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Assyrian New Year's Day. Given these associations of thought,
it is easy to see how the New Year became the festival of New
Life and how the fertilized tree became the " tree of life, " and its
sculptured image a memorial of a new year, possibly recording
some record of the actual marriages which took place in the state
on that day= The decipherment and comparison of the inscrip
tions on such tablets, by skilled Assyriologists, can alone enlighten
us on this point, but enough appears apparent to explain how the
tree could have become associated in Assyria not only with life,
but with the life and growth of the state. Moreover the tree or
pole itself, named ashera, may well have appeared to some Eu-
phrateaii people, to express the name Ashur sufficiently clear to
become its symbol and " canting arms. "

The adoption of the shaft or pole, as a symbol of the Celes
tial Centre, may easily be explained by the fact that, stuck into the
ground and watched from a certain position, its upper end would
seem to touch Polaris and it thus supplied wandering star-observ
ers with a point of fixity in space which, being transportable, fa
cilitated the registration of circumpolar rotation. During many
centuries the image of the "crooked serpent," Nakkasch, the constel
lation which could be seen each night winding its way around the
pole, must have deeply impressed itself upon the minds of the
primitive star gazers of the Euphratean valley, and conveyed
suggestions of imagery, one of which may have created the Phoe
nician caduceus. At a later period when Ursa Major became cir
cumpolar, the " seven lights of heaven" became in turn associated
with the stable centre and suggested, in time, the seven-branched
candlestick of the Hebrews which is to this day constructed with
a central or principal holder, associated with stability. It is re
markable to note the same ancient fundamental association in the
elevated and beautiful imagery employed by the descendant of
ancient Euphratean star- worshippers, in Revelation iv, in describ
ing his vision : ". . . And, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and

one sat on the throne And there were seven lamps of fire

burning before the throne. . . . And before the throne there was
a sea of glass like unto crystal : and in the midst o^ the throne and
round about the throne were four beasts "

The idea cited by Mr. Robert Brown, of the sacred pole-tree
with golden apples guarded \)\ the constellation Nakkasch, has
already been mentioned and to this ancient image should be added
800

ASIATIC CIVILIZATIONS. 365

the celestial tree of life set in the midst of the garden of Paradise,
whence "went oat a river to water the garden and from thence it
was parted and became four heads." .... It is as easy to see
how the standard of Assur, which always marked the central place
of worship, should have been evolved, as it is to realize why the
fire-stick, rod or sceptre should have been adopted by monarchs
as an emblem of central rulership, and why, finally, each centre
of government should have adopted some specific symbol which,
mounted on the staff, became its tribal or national emblem. It
does not appear hazardous to designate as such the ornamented
staffs already described, which are represented on the bas-reliefs,
in groups of four, a number agreeing with that of the "four regions."
It has already been pointed out that a group of four sceptres,
corresponding to the royal title " lord of four regions, " is carved
close to the hand of Esarhaddon on the fine Sendschirli tablet at
Berlin.

In Babylonia, the local deity of Girsu was entitled " the lord of
the true sceptre," "the lord of the right-hand sceptre," a name
which implies that, where dual rulership prevailed, a distinction
was made between right-hand and left-hand sceptres, a point to
which I shall revert later on in dealing with Egypt. In Northern
Assyria when the cult of Xabu superseded that of Marduk, his tem
ple was named " the house of the sceptre of the world " and Neb
uchadnezzar declares that it is he '• who gives the sceptre of sov
ereignty to kings to rule over the land" (Jastrow, op. eft. 129).

Simultaneously with the staff, the cross and wheel also became
emblems of sovereignty. It has already been shown that the cross
and four-spoked wheel of Shamash were synonymous signs. It
remains to be shown how the wheel was employed in Babylonia and
Assyria as an emblem of royalty. The representation of Shamash
at Sippar exhibits his wheel resting, in a perpendicular position, on
a table. Attached to the wheel are two cords which are held by a
u god" and his consort, who appear to be directing the course of
the wheel. We thus see that, whereas the disk or wheel of Assur,
the central god, revolved on its own axis, and was provided with
wings, signifying aerial and celestial motion, the wheel of Shamash
was associated with a " lord and lady," and the symbolism appears
to express that they were the directors of the " wheel of the law "
of terrestrial government. It is well known that, beside the throne,
p. M. PAPERS i 51 801

366 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the emblem of permanent repose, the Assyrian monarchs also used
the chariot as a royal prerogative.

In the Gilgamesh epic the goddess Ishtar, on conferring sove
reignty upon Gilgamesh, says : " I will place thee on a chariot of

lapis-lazuli and gold, with wheels of gold " On

studying the Nimroud bas-reliefs in the British Museum I noted
the fact that the trappings of the horse driven by king Asurnasir-
pal, who is represented as standing in his two-wheeled chariot, are
decorated with crosses. It is impossible not to recognize the affin
ity of the ' ' wheel of the law " and" the ' ' lord of the wheel " of
India with the Assyrian symbols of Polaris and of central ruler-
ship and to appreciate the naive ingenuity of the idea of making
the driving of the chariot by the king represent his control of the
rotating wheels of state and government of the four quarters from
a stable centre.1

As another example of the Assyrian employment of the cross-
symbol, the bas-relief at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, should
be mentioned, as it displays a winged bird-headed human figure,
whose garments are embroidered with crosses.

King Asurnasirpal, who is alternately figured on his throne or
in his chariot, is frequently represented as wearing on his garments
and bracelets another familiar and expressive emblem of centrali
zation and unity in diversity, the composite flower or rosette.

The sacred ship or ark of the Babylonian temple remains to be
discussed. Diodorus Seculus says that, according to Babylonian
notions, the world is k a boat turned upside down ' and resting on
the waters. The appearance in outline of this image presented the
three divisions of the universe : the heavens = Ann upheld by
the serpent body of Tiamat ; the earth, the dwelling of Bel-Mar-
duk, the 'chief of gods;' and the watery deep or 'Apsu' be
neath, the dwelling of Ea" (Jastrow). This imagery authorizes
the inference that the sacred ship or ark was associated with this
conception of the earth as a boat resting on the line dividing the
sky from the watery deep. It can readily be seen how a maritime
people would be inclined to fancy that the celestial bodies floated
in the sky on invisible boats and that a single one among them was
apparently resting on a stable rock or mountain around which other

1 It is interesting to trace to the same origin the " quadriga" which may well have
been associated with the " primitive sun" = Polaris, before supreme sovereignty was
transferred to Phrebus, the diurnal sun, by the votaries of the cult of Light.

802

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 367

stars circled perpetually. That an analogous train of thought
should have caused the ulti unite consecration of a tabernacle in
the form of a ship, to the central deity, entitled "the great
mountain," appears as inevitable as the idea that all life proceeded
from this source. Professor Jastrow tells us that the early sig
nificance of the custom of carrying the gods in consecrated ships
became lost, but that it survived in Babylonia and Egypt and that
the ark of the Hebrews appears, similarly, to have been originally
a ship of some kind. I am indebted to Dr. Wallis Budge for the
interesting information that each day, in the temple of Ptah at
Memphis, an image of the god Seker was dragged around the altar
by the priests.

Bringing the preceding tentative study of the ancient civilization
of Babylonia-Assyria to a close, I venture to affirm that, imperfect
as it is, it clearly establishes certain important points connected
with the present investigation. It demonstrates that a primitive
pole-star worship existed and still exists in the Euphratean valley,
accompanied by the employment of the swastika or cross-symbol
and by the identical fundamental set of ideas which form the basis
not only of other Asiatic, but also of the American civilizations.
The Middle is associated with special sanctity, fixity and supremacy
of power and rule, extending in rotation over the Above and Below
and Four Quarters. This seven fold division of the universe ex
tended throughout the entire organization of the state and gave rise
to certain logical developments of thought and symbolism, analo
gous to those which have been traced elsewhere.

Postponing further comment, investigation will next be trans
ferred to the valley of the Nile, whose inhabitants, at various
periods of their history, came closely into contact with the people
of Asia Minor.

EGYPT.

Pausing at the entrance to a much explored domain with a fitting
realization of being a novice and an intruder therein, I find my
self encouraged to advance by the frank admission recently made
by one of the leading authorities in Egyptology. In his ''Notes
for travellers in Egypt, " Dr. Wallis Budge, the Assistant in the
Department of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities, of the British
Museum, openly states that " the religion of the ancient Egyptians
is one of the most difficult problems of Egyptology and though a

803

368 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

great deal has been written about it daring the last few years and
many difficulties have been satisfactorily explained, there still re
main unanswered a large number of questions connected with it.
In all religious texts the reader is always assumed to have a knowl
edge of the subject treated of by the writer, and no definite state
ment is made on the subject concerning which very little, compara
tively, is known by students of to-day" (The Nile, London,
1890, p. 71).

After having traced, as I have done, throughout ancient Amer
ica, China, India and Babylonia- Assyria, one and the same funda
mental, artificial scheme of state organization, it was with keenest
interest and a new sense of comprehension of the ancient Egyptian
civilization that I noted certain facts which I shall now proceed to
present.

They will be found to show that ancient Egypt supplies us with
the instance of a civilization in which the fundamental set of ideas,
developed from primitive pole-star worship, prevailed during thous
ands of years and had reached a high stage of evolution at a pe
riod anterior to about B. C. 4000.

TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS OF ANCIENT EGYPT.

According to Dr. Wallis Budge, the ancient Egyptians called
their -land Bak or Baket, Ta-Mera and Khem or Kamt, also Ta-
Nehat, "the land of the sycamore" and the land of "the eye of
Horus." It was divided into two parts : Upper Egypt, Ta-res or
Ta-kema = " the southern land," symbolized by the vulture ; and
Lower Egypt, Ta-Meh, Mah-Ti or Meh-Ta, literally, "North-land,"
symbolized by the serpent. Two great ancient cities or capitals
were respectively known as Annu Melit, " Annu of the North,"
and Annu Qemat, " Annu of the South." The kings of Egypt
styled themselves Suten-Net, " King of the North and South " and
Nebtaui, " lord of the two earths." As such the king wore the
double crown made up of the tesher or net, the red crown of North
ern or Lower Egypt and the hetet or het, the white crown of South
ern or Upper Egypt (The Nile, p. 27).

It will be shown further on that the high white and low red
crowns were respectively worn by the king and the queen at a cer
tain period of Egyptian history. It is well known that, in numerous
pictorial representations, the Egyptian men are painted with red,
but the women with white skins. The above facts show that there
804

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

existed a curious association of red with the north and the male
sex, and of white with the south and the female sex.1

It is a familiar fact that the Egyptian hieroglyph and determi
native sign for town, city or village consisted of a circle with four
divisions. The usual form of this sign, the phonetic value of
which is nu or nut, is shown as fig. 60, 1, a. On a bas-relief pre
served at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, I noted the variant 1, b.
It is interesting to collate these signs with the cross-symbols
(2) which express the sound of uu, un,and ur, and to note that the
sign for a capital in Egypt contains a division into four = un or ur,
and that the latter word is actually the familiar name of the famous
centre in Babylonia where cities laid out in the form of a square
and "four-god cities" existed, and the kings were termed " lords of
the four regions " and u kings of Sumer and Akkad,"the two an
cient divisions of the Babylonian state.

It thus appears doubly significant that, in Egyptian, the word ur
signifies " great, great one" and is also the name of a god, which
is expressed in hieroglyphic writing by the cross, a mouth and a
seated god, the determinative for divinity. What is more, ur-u —
chiefs, ur-t = the name of a crown and ur-t — those who rest,
all of which words show that the Egyptian ur was associated with
the idea of divinity, greatness, crowned chieftainship, repose and
the cross-symbol which is incorporated in nut, the sign for capital
or city.

The fact that the symbols for the two great divisions of ancient
Egypt, the red crown of Northern or Lower Egypt, and the white
crown of Southern or Upper Egypt, are found surmounting the
sign nut (3), sufficiently shows that this symbol also stood for
an extended capital, a state, and that both "lands" consti
tuted at one time separate units or reproductions of the identical
plan. Returning to the ancient capitals known as the " Annu of

1 1 am pleased to be able, at the last moment, to insert the following interesting
points personally communicated to me by Dr. Wallis Budge: In remotest antiquity
two mythical mountains marked the two divisions of the land: Bakhan, situated to
the southeast, and Manu, situated to the northwest. The latter, like the mountain
Meru of India, was the abode of the blessed, towards which the souls of the dead set
out from Abydos and where eternal rest was to be found. The curious connection
between the north = mehta and the west = amenta, which I have shown to have
prevailed in ancient Mexico where the north is named Mictlan and in Yucatan where
Aman signifies north, is particularly interesting in connection with the exclamation
or exhortation to the soul, constantly met with in the Egyptian Book of the Dead-
Er-amentet = to the hidden land! /. e., the northwest.

805

370 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the North" and the u Annu of the South:" according to Dr.
Wallis Budge the first occupied the site of Heliopolis and was
identical with the city of On mentioned in Genesis (XLI : 45) . The
Annu Qemat was Hermonthis, the modern Meuth, Armant or Er-
ment, situated on the west bank of the Nile a little to the south
of the ruins of Thebes. It is noteworthy that the name for Thebes,
given in the cuneiform inscriptions and Hebrew scriptures, No
(Ezek. xxx : 4) and No-am-on (Nahum in : 8), is in one case the
simple inversion of On, the Hebrew name of Heliopolis, the North
ern Annu, while in the second instance the name of Thebes incor
porates both forms.

The allusion to the " square of the city of Edfu," and to build
ings laid out on a square ground-plan, contained in inscriptions
cited by Brugsch,1 also furnishes an indication, which can doubt
less be multiplied, that, as in Babylonia, Egyptian cities were some
times built in the form of a square. In Egyptian hieroglyphics,
the square (slightly elongated) is employed to express the conso
nant p. The sign appears to have been cryptic and to have con
stituted the symbol of the god Ptah, u The Opener," considered
as the most ancient of Egyptian gods. According to Dr. Wallis
Budge, " the sign is the picture of a door made up of a number of
boards fastened together by three cross-pieces at the back, and
there can be no doubt that the word for door was connected with
the verb pth r= to open, and that it was pronounced something like
ptah (compare the Hebrew pethah) . The sound of the first letter
of ptah being p, the phonetic value of the door became p" (First
steps in Egyptian, p. 5). To the above I add the observation
that the plain square or outline of the door, without indications of
boards and cross-pieces, is usually employed in the published texts.
The association of the square, representing a door with three
cross-beams, and expressing the sound ptah is particularly interest
ing when connected with the word for earth or land = ta, and the
method of expressing the word universe — tani, by the threefold
repetition of the sign ta, which resembles a cross-beam (fig. 60, 5).
An interesting association of the square with earth or land is seen
in one of the signs for province or nome ==. sept or hesp, which
consists of a series of squares, evidently representing theoretical
territorial divisions and possibly a system of canal-irrigation.
Other suggestive signs for sep consist of a circle containing two

1 Thesaurus Tnscriptionem JEgyptiacarum II, p. 212.
806

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 371

strokes ; a circle enclosing four dots and a double circle (fig. 60, 4) .
It is interesting to find an isosceles triangle employed, with a slight
addition, to express the word tai=rland, as well as sept = province
(fig. 60, 4 and 5), and to find on analyzing the circular sign for nut
= sky, which is likewise the determinative for city, that it contains
four triangles. These converge towards the centre, as do the trian
gular sides of the square pyramid, and thus the sign nut and the
pyramid clearly appear to express a whole divided into four parts,
the square form being connected with earth and the circle with
the sky.

A proof that the quadriform organization was extensively em-

^Sx -7? IA, nut = city, town, village.
<=^j -uu.un.ur. (cf. ftu-4.)

het',net= Upper and Lover Egypt.

*\ 1 1 1 1 1 A

s-Jr = ^n II II I ~ or L _ \ = sept.

ZiA - to.

5 < ... » = ia

FIG. (jo.

ployed in ancient Egypt, is furnished by Dr. Wallis Budge's state
ment that each nome or province was divided into four parts, and
had its capital or " nut. " The inference is that each nome con
stituted a miniature reproduction of the state and that the sign
ant represented its theoretical plan. On the other hand, the fact
that the triangle constitutes one sign for the nome itself, indicates
that, originally, the nome was identified as one of four divisions of
the state only and that, like Babylon, Egypt must have been theo-

807

372 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

reticrdly divided, not only into two main divisions, but also into
four regions, corresponding to the

North = Meh-ta, literally North land.
West = Amen-ta, literally Hidden land.
South = Resu.
East = Aba.

In the extracts from the Pyramid texts published by Dr. Wallis
Budge (Pyramid of Unas, Fifth dynasty) , the following invocation
occurs : " O gods of the west, O gods of the east, O gods of the
south, O gods of the north, four these, who embrace the four quar
ters of the earth holy." These four quarters are represented in
hieroglyphics by the sign for land = ta, repeated four times, which
thus express, literally, "the four lands" or regions. Allusion is
also made in the same inscription, to the " four fields of heaven. "*

The four gods, termed by Egyptologists the " genii of the dead,"
were Amset or Mestha, Hapi, Tuaumutef and Kebhsenuf, and it
was the custom to place thecanopic vases representing them under
the bier. The canopic vases were, however, also supposed to
be under the protection of four sky goddesses, identified with the
cardinal points, whose names are usually given as Isis, Nephthys,
Neith and Serk-t (?). A particularly interesting instance of the
employment of the cross-symbol in connection with the four " gods
of the horizon," as they are termed, is to be found in the Book
of the Dead, published by Lepsius and reproduced by Dr. Wallis
Budge (Dwellers on the Nile, p. 158). The four gods in mummy
form, stand in a line behind a table laden with offerings. A large
crux decussata (St. Andrew's cross) is painted on the right shoul
der of the foremost god, a fact to which I shall revert and dis
cuss further in dealing with the cross-symbol and swastika in
Egypt. Having traced quadruplicate territorial divisions and
quaternions of gods, let us next present proofs of an organization
of the population into four " races."

Dr. Wallis Budge, referring to Chabas and Naville, states that
"the Egyptians of the later empire believed that Ra-Harmachis, at-

i First Steps in Egyptian, London, 1898. I am mainly indebted to this useful book
and other publications by the same author for the Egyptian words cited in the follow
ing pages. An interesting point, personally communicated to me by Dr. Wallis
Budge, is that the cardinal points in Egypt were located diagonally, a method
which is shown to have also existed in Central America by the diagonal orientation
of numberless pyramids and buildings.
808

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 373

tacked his foes, who fled in all directions from before him. Those
who came to the south became the Cushites, those who came to
the north became the Amu, those who came to the west the Liby
ans and those who came to the east the Shasu, and thus were the
four races of mankind made " (The Dwellers on the Nile, p. 53).

The fact that the Sphinx has been designated as the image of
Ra-Harmachis /, e. Heru-em-chut and of his human representative,
and that the distribution of people to the cardinal points and the
origin of four races of men is assigned to him, are particularly in
teresting and suggestive, especially in connection with the familiar
table of nations given by Moses, who says u and the sons of Ham,
Cushand Mizraim and Phut and Canaan " (Gen. x : 6). Dr. Wallis
Budge states that Ham or Kham is the same as Khem and is the
name Kamt, i. e. black, by which the Egyptians generally called
their land. I venture to point out that in the following passages
the name Ham seems to be more applicable to a deity such as
Amen-Ra or to his human representative a king, than to Egypt it
self : kt And smote all the firstborn in Egypt and the chief of their
strength in the tabernacles of Ham " and again " Wondrous works
i?i the land of Ham." ....

It is well known that Mizraim, the second name given above,
was employed by the Hebrews as a designation for Eg3rpt. The
inhabitants of the region of Gush are represented on Egyptian
monuments and we are told that " at the outset they appear to
have had a religion and speech akin to that of the Egyptians.
We find Phut most probably, in the Punt of the inscriptions, the
land .... situated to the south of Egypt on both sides of
the Red sea. The fourth son [of Ham], Canaan, is represented
by the original inhabitants of Canaan, who were probably near
relations of the Egyptians" (Wallis Budge, The Dwellers on the
^sile, p. 52). While tradition and documentary evidence thus as
sociates the four sons of Ham wMth certain regions and cardinal
points, Egyptian monuments exhibit representations of people of
four different colors, i. e. red, yellow, black and white.

" The ancient Egyptians . . . recognized four races of men.
They themselves belonged to the ' Rot ' or red men ; the yellow
men they called 'Namu' — it included the Asiatic races; the
black men were called ' Nahsu, ' and the white men ;Tam-hu.'
The following figures (fig. 61) are copied f rom Nott and Gliddon's

809

374

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

'Types of Mankind, 'p. 85, and were taken by them from the great
works of Belzoui, Champollion and Lepsius " (Donelly, Atlantis,
p. 195).

Pursuing our investigations of the territorial divisions of Egypt,
we learn, from Mr. Wallis Budge, that collectively there were 42
nomes in Upper and Lower Egypt. This number is identical with
that of the 42 gods represented in the Book of the Dead as being
with Osiris in the hall of Two Truths where the dead were judged.
The 42 ''judges of the dead" are represented as seated figures,
with human or animal heads, and are equally divided into two
groups. From the "negative confession" which the deceased

Bfid, yellow. Blade "White.

TUB BAOE8 OF MEN ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS.
FIG. 61.

makes to his judges, we learn that each god was identified with a
locality, some amongst them being addressed as u coming out from"
such important cities as Heliopolis, Sais, Bubastis, etc. The in
ference I venture to make is that these 42 judges were the gods of
the 42 nomes who, with Osiris, the chief god and the " President,"
formed the council of gods, which judged and ordered the affairs
of men.

It is moreover natural to suppose that terrestrial administrations
of justice must also have been executed by a supreme council of
men, composed of the king, the living image of Osiris, and the
chiefs of the 42 nomes of Upper and Lower Egypt, who personi-
810

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 375

fiecl, as elsewhere, the totemic divinity of tribe or district. Post
poning further discussion of the number 42, associated with nomes
and gods, let us examine further data concerning the territorial
organization of ancient Egypt.

Dr. Wallis Budge tells us that, u during the rule of the Greeks
(B. C. 342-332), Egypt was divided into three parts : Upper, Cen
tral and Lower Egypt. Central Egypt consisted of seven nomes,
and was called Heptanomis" (Nile, p. 28). The seven-storied
pyramid of Sakkarah and the employment of the signs expressing
" three regions" and "• four regions or lands," to signify the whole
land or universe, prove that, long before Greek rule, the ancient
Egyptians, like the Babylonians, employed the heptameredal sys
tem. Thus, according to Herodotus, u There are seven classes of
Egyptians, and of these some are called priests, others warriors,
others herdsmen, others swineherds, others tradesmen, others in
terpreters and lastly pilots ; such are the classes of Egyptians ;
they take their names from the employments they exercise"
(Euterpe n, 164). Passages from Prof. Flinders Petrie's History
of Egypt (Vol. ii, pp. 156 and 185) afford, moreover, instances of
the conquest of a heptarchic government by an Egyptian king and
the employment, in about B. C. 1500, of the number seven, as a
mystic or sacred number, in a letter from a Syrian prince to the
Egyptian king.

In the record of the triumphal return of Aa-kheperu-ra, the
seventh king of the eighteenth dynasty (B. C. 1449-1423), it is
said : " His Majesty returned in joy of heart to his father Amen ;
his own hand, with his mace, had struck down the seven chiefs,
which were of the territory of Pakhsi (near Aleppo)" . . . . •
" Six of these enemies were hanged in front of the walls of Thebes ;
the seventh [probably the chief of chiefs], was brought to Nubin
and was hanged on the wall of the town of Napata, to show
forth for all time the victories of the king among all people of
the negro land, inasmuch as he had taken possession of the na
tions of the south and he had bound the nations of the north and
the ends of the whole extent of the earth on which the sun rises and
sets, without finding any opposition, according to the command of
his father Amen-ra of Thebes." A letter from a Syrian prince to
Amenhotep III (B.C. 1414-1379), opens thus: "To the king,
my master, my god, my sun, this is said : Yatibiri, the servant,

811

376 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the dust of thy feet, at the feet of my king, my master, my god,
my sun, seven times, and seven times more, I fall down.1"

While the above data suffice to establish that more than a thou
sand years before Greek rule was established in Egypfc its inhabi
tants were familiar with the seven-fold scheme of organization, the
following extremely interesting portion of Brugsch's monumental
work, already cited, indirectly teaches much concerning the divisions
of the land of Egypt. The ancient Egyptian astronomers regarded
the nocturnal heaven as the exact counterpart of the land of Egypt
(i, p. 17G). In the inscriptions, the firmament is frequently con
sidered geographically, as a region comprising countries surrounded
by seas and traversed by rivers and canals, and covered with cities
and houses and divided into nomes which corresponded to those of
Egypt, excepting in point of number, there being thirty-six celestial
nomes. According to the inscriptions and pictures in the royal
tombs at Thebes, there was a celestial eastern sea (uat-ura abti),
a western sea (uat-ura amentti) and a northern sea (uat-ura mah-
tet or mehtat). Special mention is made of "the waters" and
land of the ik northern place of light above the constellation of
the Great Bear."

The lands of Punet (Punt?), Uthenet, Kenemti and Sa-nutar-
t-mahti, u the northern land of God" are designated, beside other
names which correspond to the terrestrial geographical situation of
outlying foreign countries known to the Egyptians. There was a
celestial city. "Anu or On," whose eastern and western sides or
places of light are frequently mentioned. The mention of a sin
gle Anu or On, names which are found applied to the most ancient
capitals of the land of Egypt, is particularly noteworthy. It will
be shown further on, upon Sir Norman Lockyer's authority, that,
in the exact centre of the circular zodiac at Denderah, the jackal,
expressing the name Ariubis, u is located at the pole of the equa
tor and obviously represents the present Little Bear." This and
other data establish beyond a doubt that the celestial Anu, On or
No, was supposed to be situated in Polaris and that the terrestrial
capital was intended to be the counterpart of the apparent seat of
central rule and government according to fixed laws and order of ro
tation. The idea that, after death, the human soul lived again in
the celestial sphere is shown in the following address to a departed

1 A History of Egypt, Vol. II. London, 189G.
812

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 377

spirit contained in the Bulak papyrus cited by Brugsch : u The im
ages of the gods of the Southern and Northern countries appear
to thee in the thirty-six notnes ; thou goest where they are as a
perfect soul, thou doest what pleases thee in the heaven, thou art
amongst the constellations of the thirty-six Beka."

This word is rendered by Brugsch as the " Dekane " in German
and I have been unable to find its exact equivalent in P^nglish.
The Dekanes are alluded to in an inscription from the Ptolemaic
period cited by Brugsch (op. cit. i, p. 135) as follows : " They shine
forth after the sun has set. They run in a circle, and continually
release each other. They become apparent at sunset at hours vary
ing with the seasons." The Dekane constellations or stars were
those which rose at the beginning of each decade or period of ten
days, which constituted the Egyptian u week." There were thirty-
six or 4 X 9 of these in the Egyptian year, at the end of which
an epact of five days was added, each day being consecrated to
one of the five chief gods. Deferring the discussion of the Egyp
tian numerical calendaric system, I merely point out here the ob
vious agreement between the number of celestial nomes = 36, the
number of decades in the year of 360 days to which should be
added the familiar fact that each day and decade had its special
u god." Laying stress upon the point that in ancient Egypt we
find thirty-six celestial, geographical districts, corresponding to
the thirty-six decades of the year and to thirty-six gods, I take
pleasure in pointing out how clearly the following passages of Sir
Norman Lockyer's u Dawn of Astronomy" show that the thirty-
six gods had as many human representatives, priests, who per
formed certain religious rites and homage in the chief temple in a
fixed order of rotation. "Even at Phike in late times, in the tem
ple of Osiris, there wrere 360 bowls for sacrifices, which were filled
daily with milk by a specified rotation of priests. At Acanthus
there was a perforated cask into which one of the 360 priests
poured water from the Nile daily;" an enforced act of obedience
recalling the punishment of the daughters of Danae. As Sir
Norman Lockyer justly remarks " these temple ceremonials are
an evidence of their antiquity and may be regarded as traditions
preserved by the conservative priesthood."

I am inclined to regard the above mentioned acts of empty hom
age as survivals of conditions strictly analogous to those which
existed in ancient America, where each geographical district of the

813

378 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

state was associated with a class of people under their representa
tive, and a day of the calendar on which obligations towards the
central government, such as the paying of tribute, had to be per
formed in a fixed order of rotation, corresponding to the annual
circuit of the circumpolar constellations around the pole star.

During centuries the most remarkable of these, Ursa Major,
like the hand of a great celestial dial, moved by an unseen rul
ing power apparently located in Polaris, became visible after dusk
and pointed towards the four quarters of heaven in succession,
at intervals of nine decades of days. As in China and else
where at the present day, its position was referred to as a guide in
determining time, during the night, and the seasons ; and mankind
became familiarized with the idea of a changeless inexorable law
and order governing the universe and determining human periodi
cal activities, and thus directly influencing individuallives. Added
to this the idea of a heavenly kingdom, traversed by the celestial
Nile, the Milky Way, and in which each familiar locality in Egypt
had its counterpart, it is easy to follow the spread of the be
lief that there was a close connection between the stars and their ter
restrial counterparts and that they directly influenced the destinies
of individuals, each of which had its particular star in the sky.

The following portions of the decree inscribed B. C. 238 on
the famous trilingual stela of Cauopus, preserved at Gizeh, contain
what appear to me to be distinct allusions to the ideal of a terres
trial kingdom, laid out and governed in accordance with the system
and fixed laws observed as existing in the heavens and governing
the movements of celestial bodies. The hieroglyphic text records
the establishment of festivals " in accord with the existing funda
mental laws upon which the heavens [the movements of heavenly
bodies] are established. " . . . . The Greek translation of this
passage reads : " according to the now existing order of the world
[universe] " and the demotic version is : " in accordance with the
scheme, upon which the heaven is established " (Brugsch, op. cit.
i, p. 180). Further facts concerning celestial and terrestrial terri
torial divisions remain to be examined and discussed.

A number of representations exist in which the figure of the sky-
goddess, Nut, appears as though stretched across the vault of
heaven, her feet resting on the earth in the east and the tips of her
fingers touching the horizon in the west. A study of certain texts
cited by Brugsch clearly shows that it was for very practical and
814

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 379

sensible reasons that the Egyptian astronomers had adopted the
plan of an imaginary human form stretched across the nocturnal
heaven, as it enabled the position of constellations and stars to be
definitely located. Lepsius has shown that, in a series of inscrip
tions in the tombs of Ramses VI and Ramses IX, the movements
and positions of stars are given in connection with the parts of an
imaginary human form in the sky. It is thus said of a star that
it was situated: " in the middle of the breast, in the right eye,
the left eye, the right ear, the left ear, the right arm, the left arm,
the left thigh. "

Brugsch (op. cit. i, p. 187) quotes the opinion of Lepsius that
the parts alluded to in the above inscriptions, referred to an im
aginary male figure stretched across the firmament and viewed en
face, and publishes a theoretical reconstruction of this imaginary
figure. It recalls that of a Buddha and suggests the idea that the
Egyptian schematical figure must have also been imagined as seated
on the stable centre of the heaven. Egyptian astronomical texts,
which I shall cite further on, appear to me to show distinctly that
the lotus flower (the name for flower being ankh) was employed
to express the sound ankh, which means '• life " and that it occurs
in connection with other symbols of the pole-star god.

Returning to the representations of Nut stretched across the
sky, it should be noted that this employment of the human form
belongs to the same category as the Sphinx, which appears to have
been the terrestrial counterpart of the celestial schematical figure.
On the other hand, the sign nut, consisting of a circle with four
divisions, like the pyramid, represents the successful attempt to
express the same thought in abstract, geometrical form, such as
would be intelligible to an initiated, intellectual minority only.

It will be seen further on that I advance the view that the pyra
mid, being a miniature reproduction of the scheme of the universe,
contained a sacred central chamber, representing the sacred Mid
dle, and that this was destined to be the " house of eternal repose "
for the dead king, the representative of the universal god.

As Dr. Wallis Budge tells us: "If the deceased succeeds in
passing the ordeal [of judgment after death] satisfactorily, he
comes forth at once as a god (there is no place of probation), he
becomes identified with Osiris, in whose shape his mummy is made"
(The Dwellers on the Nile, p. 177).

The following text, from the inscription on an amulet found on

815

380 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the neck of the mummy of a young girl, preserved at the Berlin
Museum, is explained in the official catalogue of the museum
(p. 343), as signifying that "the mummy was supposed to lie in
the centre of the whole world:" "The sky is locked over the
earth, the earth is locked over the beyond and the beyond is locked
over this strong mummy-case of the departed Osiris-Hathor-tsen-

usire " As the "beyond" in the inscription evidently

signifies the u underworld," the idea that the mummy case, resting
on the earth, was being pressed upon from beneath by the under
world, and from above by the sky, is clearly conveyed and is
in keeping with the sign for universe, already alluded to, which
represents three regions superposed. The "deification" of the
mummy, which is named " Osiris-Hathor," is an interesting in
stance of the idea that the mummy became the image not only of
the goddess Hathor but also of the god Osiris, or Ptah, who is
usually represented in the form of a mummy.

A remarkable instance of a king in a pyramid being actually
worshipped and bearing the name of Ptah, added to his own, is
given 'by Prof essor Flinders Petrie (op. tit. n, p. 257). "... The
figure of the king Teta, entitled Teta-mer-en-ptah, is placed in a
triangle, which is suggestive of a pyramid (as Men-nefer is written
with the same triangle on this naos) . Rather than suppose a new
king at this period, we should see in this the worship of a pyra
mid king, Teta, of the sixth dynasty ..." The association of.
Ptah, who is regarded as perhaps the oldest of all gods of Egypt,
with the square = ptah and the pyramid and the mummy, is of ex
treme interest, especially as Egyptian texts contain references to
" a single god, who becomes a quaternary of gods " (Brugsch n,
408), and we therefore see that the idea of Four in One was a
familiar one. The personification of Ptah usually consists of a
mummy holding a sceptre, expressing strength, life and stability.
Under the form of Osiris he usually holds the curved sceptre de
noting dominion, beside the symbols for life, rule and power, and
iy entitled the "lord of the holy land, lord of eternity, prince of
everlasting, the president of the gods, and the head of the corri
dor of the tomb." Considering that in all pyramids hitherto ex
plored, the corridor of the tomb is directed towards Polaris, it
appears obvious that the supreme god of "life, strength, eternity,
rule and power," was a personification af Polaris, the stability of
which was naively expressed by the body in mummy form symbol-
816

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 381

•izing the absolute repose and immobility of death, combined with
an animated face and the symbols of living, active power.

As the divine land is expressly designated as the divine land of
the north in astronomical texts and that this celestial region had
its terrestrial counterpart, it is naturally in Lower Egypt, that the
holy land of the north must be sought.

Investigation speedily proves that the most ancient vestiges of
civilization are situated in the neighborhood of Memphis which,
under the kings of the fourth and the sixth dynasties, reached its
height of splendor. It is in the land of the north, Meh-ta, that the
extremely ancient seven-storied pyramid of Sakkarah lies, and that
there exists the area of about thirty kilometers in which eighty
pyramids are concentrated, and which constitutes the great burial
ground of countless generations of Egyptians of all periods. A
curious detail, to which I shall refer again, is the affinity in sound
of the name for ''north land," Meh-ta, and mit = death or the dead,
and the undeniable resemblance of both words to the Nahuatl,
ancient Mexican mictlan = the North, or underworld, from mie-
quiztli = death and tlan = land (cf. Egyptian ta = land).

In Egypt, as elsewhere, the western horizon, below which sun,
moon and stars disappeared, was naturally regarded as the entrance
to the region of the underworld. The west being therefore desig
nated ameu-ta, " the hidden or concealed land or region," it is
all the more significant to find the single entrance and exit corridor
of each pyramid directed, not towards the west, the underworld,
but towards the stable centre of the northern region of the sky.
It would therefore seem as though the intention had been to estab
lish a direct line of communication between the tomb chamber in
the centre of the pyramid and the divine " northern land of Gocl,"
the sacred mountain Maim and the shining celestial city Ann,
lying " between the east and west," i. e. in the Middle, where the
supreme star-god dwelt in eternal repose. An interesting proof
that the longing of the souls of the dead tended towards the north
is furnished by the common prayer-formula : "'may my soul ....
inhale the north-wind and drink from the stream."

Before advancing further, the following authoritative statements,
establishing the supremacy of pole-star cult in ancient Egypt,
should be presented.

According to Sir Norman Lockyer, -• It seems extremely prob
able that the worship of circumpolar constellations went on in
p. M. PAPERS i 52 817

382 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Babylonia as well as in Egypt in the earliest times we can get at''
(op. cit. p. 363). "There can be no question that the chief an
cient constellation in the North was the Great Hear or, as it was
then pictured, the Thigh (Meskhet)"(p. 216). " In the exact centre
of the circular zodiac of Deuderah we find the jackal [Anubis]
located at the pole of the equator : it obviously represents the
present Little Bear" (p. 362).

" With regard to Anubis, it is quite certain that the seven stars
in Ursa Minor make a very good jackal with pendent tail, as gen
erally represented by the Egyptians and that they form the near
est compact constellation to the pole of the ecliptic. . . ."

Sir Norman Lockyer adds that he is informed by Dr. Wallis
Budge that u An was an old name of the sun-god," but also states,
in another page of his work that " the worship of Anubis, as god

of the dead or the night god was supreme until the

time of Men-kau-ra, the builder of the third pyramid of Gizeh"
(B. C. 3633, Brugsch; B. C. 4100, Mariette ; p. 363).

Pending the production of astronomical texts which amply dem
onstrate that An was a name of a god of the night sun, Polaris,
the following establishes that, at Annu or Heliopolis, in remotest
antiquity and amongst the pyramid builders, the cult of a northern
star prevailed.

"The first civilization as yet glimpsed, so far as temple building
goes, in Northern Egypt, represented by that at Annu, or Heli
opolis, was a civilization which combined the cult of a northern
star with a non-equinoctial solar worship" .... "I know not
whether the similarity in the words Ann, Annu and An results
merely from a coincidence, but it is certainly singular that the
most ancient temples in Lower Egypt (Heliopolis and Deuderah)
should be called Annu or An, if there be no connection with the
Babylonian god Ann " (Lockyer, op. cit. p. 321).

The well-known fact that the entrance passage to the earliest
pyramid known, that of Medum, and of all pyramids hitherto ex
plored, has not only been found on the north face of the structure
but is also believed to have oriented towards " Sut-anup, " the
pole-star (of the period of its construction), unquestionably proves
that the pyramid builders assigned a particular importance to the
north. Referring the reader to Sir Norman Lockver's work for a
mass of valuable and interesting information concerning the orien
tation of Egyptian temples, I merely quote the following statements
818

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 383

which not only show that throughout Lower Egypt north-star wor
ship existed, but also establish the interesting and important fact
that in Upper Egypt a totally different astronomical cult was car
ried out during an unknown length of time.

u It is an important fact to bear in mind that in the North of
Egypt, in early times, the stellar temples were more particularly
directed to the north, while south of Thebes, so far as I know,
there is only one temple so directed " (p. 225) ... " From the as
tronomical point of view there are distinctly two series

[of temples and monuments in general], (leaving out of consider
ation the great pyramid builders at Gizeh) absolutely dissimilar
astronomically ; there are at least two sets [of temple-
builders], one going up the river building temples to the north
stars, the other going down the river building temples to the south
stars ; and the two streams practically met at Thebes, or at all
events they were both very fully represented there either together
or successively."

Sir Norman Lockyer proceeds to say: "The double origin of
the people thus suggested on astronomical grounds may be the rea
son of the name of ' double country,' used especially in the titles
of kings, of the employment of two crowns, and finally of the
supposed sovereignty of Set over the north, and of Horus over
the south divisions of the kingdom" (op. cit. p. 345). ''In
short, in Lower Egypt the temples are pointed to rising stars near
the north point of the horizon, or setting north of west. In Up
per Egypt we deal chiefly with temples directed to stars rising in
the southeast, or setting low in the southwest. Here again we are
in presence of ... distinct differences of astronomical thought
. . . ." (p. 341). " With regard to the northern stars observed
rising in high amplitudes, we have found traces of their worship in
times so remote that in all probability at Annu and Denderah
a Ursre Majoris was used before it became circumpolar. We deal
almost certainly with 5000 B. C. . . . New temples with nearly
similar amplitudes .... were built at later times ... it may
be suggested that the stellar observations made in them had ulti
mately to do with the determination of the hours of the night ;
this seems probable, for in Nubia at present, time at night is thus
told."

"It is possible that observations of these stars [which are nearest
the pole and move most slowly] might have been made in such a

819

384 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

way that, at the beginning of the evening the particular position
of Y Draconis, for instance, might have been noted with regard
to the pole-star ; and seeing that the P^gyptians thoroughly knew
the length of the night and of the day in the different portions of
the year, they could at once, the moment they had the starting-
point afforded by the position of this star, practically use the cir
cle of the stars round the north pole as the dial of a sort of
celestial clock. May not this really have been the clock with which
they have been credited? However long or short the night, the
star which was at first above the pole-star after it had got round
so that it was on a level with it, would have gone through a quar
ter of its revolution. In low northern latitudes, however, the
southern stars would serve better for this purpose, since the circle
of northern circumpolar stars would be much restricted. Hence
there was a reason in such latitudes for preferring southern stars.
With regard both to high north and south stars, then, we may in
both cases be in presence of observations made to determine the
time at night. So that the worship of Set, the determination of
the time at night by means of the northern stars, might have been
little popular with those who at Gebel Barkal and elsewhere in the

south had used the southern ones for the same purpose "

(p. 344).

Valuable and suggestive as these observations are, I venture to
point out that the following texts appear to indicate very clearly
that, as in China and Mesopotamia, in the present day, the ancient
Egyptian high-priest and king on important public occasions sim
ply utilized the conspicuous constellation of Ursa Major as a
measurer of time.

In the account of the ceremonial used at the laying of the foun
dation of the temple at Edfu, it is stated that the king's glance
was directed to the Ak or u Middle " and to Meskhet = Ursa Ma
jor. A part of the full translation of the inscription quoted from
Nissen by Sir Norman Lockyer (op. ci7., pp. 176 and 179) repre
sents the king as speaking, thus : u Looking to the sky and rec
ognizing the ' ak ' of the Bull's Thigh constellation, I establish
the corners of the temple of Her Majesty." It is further said
" With his glance directed towards the ' ak ' of the Bull's Thigh
constellation he [the king] establishes the temple house of the
mistress of Denderak, as took place there before."

Having found out, by referring to Egyptian dictionaries, that
820

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 385

er-ak means " in the middle," and em-aka u in the midst or mid
dle," while Hak was a word employed for " king," I suggest that
these meanings afford a different and much more simple explana
tion of the " ak" mentioned in the inscription than that given by
Sir Norman Lockyer and Diimichen. In dealing, further on, with
the astronomical signs and names associated with the pole of the
ecliptic, I shall, moreover, point out that the bull = ka, employed as
an astronomical symbol of Ursa Major, may have been adopted
as a cryptic sign for Polaris, merely because its name contained
the letters of the word ak — the Middle. The recurrence of the
same letters in Hak = king seems to explain also why the king of
Egypt was entitled " the bull."

Returning to the inscription relating to the ceremony of laying
the foundation stone ; in other texts cited by Sir Norman Lockyer
we find the king saying : " I have grasped the wooden peg [stake]
and the handle of the club ; I hold the rope with Sesheta [his fe
male consort]. My glance follows the course of the stars; my
eye is on Meskhet ; standing as divider of time by his measuring
instrument " (Duemichen's version) or " mine is the part of time of
the number of the hour-clock " (Brugsch's version). In another
part the king says " . . . . I let my glance enter the con
stellation of the Thigh (representing the divider of time at his
measuring instrument)" (Duemichen's translation) or u the part of
my time stands in the place of his hour-clock" ( Brugsch's transla
tion). Sir Norman Lockyer notes that " the word merechormer-
echet, in which Brugsch suspects hour or water-clock, does not oc
cur elsewhere.

Whatever differences there may be in the Brugsch and Duemichen
translations and the interpretations of the wordak, the above texts
establish that the Egyptian king directed his glance to "the Mid
dle " and that the constellation Meskhet = Ursa Major was con
nected with time-measurement and the establishment of the four
quarters of the temple.

As I shall show further on, the ;t Sesheta," mentioned in the text
as performing the ceremony with the king, appears to be not a
44 mythical goddess," as Sir Norman Lockyer infers, but the living
u divine queen," and consort of the king. She is represented with
the insignia of Isis, whereas he wears the crown of Osiris, and I
note that wrhile she holds her stake in her left, he holds his in his
right hand. Deferring a discussion of the position of Egyptian

821

386 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

queens, I point out here that, in the interesting description of a
foundation ceremonial, preserved in an inscription relating to the
rebuilding of a temple at Abydos, about B. C. 1380, the Sesheta,
entitled the " mistress of the laying of the foundation stone,"
seems to have been the chief actor, since it it she who addresses
the king, as follows : " The hammer in my hand was of gold, as
I struck the peg with it, and thou wast with me in thy capacity of
Harpedonapt [?]. Thy hand held the spade during the fixing of
its [the temple's] four corners with accuracy by the four supports
of heaven" (Lockyer, p. 175).

The " four supports of heaven" referred to here are obviously
" the gods Mestha, Hapi, Tuamautef and Qebhsennuf," who are
recorded in the Book of the Dead (chapter 17) as being " those
which find themselves behind the constellation of the Thigh in
the northern heaven. " In an inscription in the kings' graves at
Thebes mention is made of the " four Northern Genii who are the
four gods of l the follower ' [obviously a circumpolar constella.
tion]" (Lockyer, p. 147). They seem to be also identical with
the "four constellations [Akhemusek] which are found in the north
ern heavens," and the '-sailors or oarsmen in the bark of Ra," men
tioned in the same and in many other inscriptions. The four
"gods" are represented with human bodies respectively surmount
ed by the head of a man, an ape, a jackal and a hawk and are
identical with the " genii of the dead," represented on the canopic
vases placed at the four corners of the bier. In this connection
attention is drawn to how clearly the symbolism of the mortuary
customs becomes apparent when it is realized that the mummy, the
image of Ptah-Osiris, and of the pole-star god, was laid to u eternal
rest" in an imaginary "sacred centre, " obtained by naively plac
ing the effigies of the gods of the cardinal points, the personifica
tions of the " four stars of the northern heaven," at the corners
of the bier. The same dominant thought which underlies the pop
ular use of the canopic vases clearly led to the building of the
vast pyramids which constituted the sacred " centres of the world"
par excellence, the square base typifying the four regions and
"corners "of the earth; the triangular sides the four divisions
of the sky, which converge to a single Middle, associated with
Polaris, the sacred pole or ak of the Cosmos.

Returning to the subject of the measurement of time by means
of the circumpolar constellations, it is instructive to find that the
822

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 387

Egyptian determinative sign for u time" consists of a central clot
with a circle drawn around it and to note that the only celestial body
that could be accurately figured as occupying the centre of a circle
described around it is the primitive sun, Polaris.

The Egyptian for "time" is rek, an inversion of ker = the
night, the common sign for which is a band, figuring the sky, from
the centre of which a star is suspended by a thread. As the star
is usually formed by two lines, diagonally crossed, at the end of
the thread, there is a strong temptation to see in the hanging sin
gle star an actual representation of a cross symbol. It is particu
larly striking to find in Brugsch's work, that the determinative for
time is actually represented, in numerous cases, as close to the
single hanging star (fig. 62, 9). I leave it to the reader to form
his own conclusions whether this group represents Polaris and the
circuit of time measured by the circumpolar constellations, or
wrhether it merely represents, as Brugsch states, the winter solstice,
i. e. the day sun in the nocturnal sky.

There exists a remarkable variant of the determinative of time,
which I shall discuss more fully further on. Instead of a mere
dot, a five-pointed star is distinctly figured in the centre of the cir
cle (fig. 62, 12). This variant furnishes, in my opinion, convincing
proof of the meaning of the determinative for time, which also
constituted the well-known sign for Ra — god, and forms a part of
the name of the supreme divinity of Egypt, Amen, or Amou or
Amun Ra, the " hidden or secret god," whose name contradicts
the current assumption that Ra signifies the diurnal sun merely,
and that Amen-Ra was a u solar " deity.

The following texts relating to the " supreme true but hidden
god " amply demonstrate that the chief characteristic of his cult was
that it wras shrouded in secrecy and mystification. Others, which
I shall quote farther on, allow us clearly to perceive that individ
uals were obliged to pass through a series of initiations into the
meanings of cabalistic signs and symbols of the divinity before
they attained the pure knowledge of the nature of the mysterious,
"hidden divinity." On reading the texts of the famous " Book of
the Dead " it has frequently occurred to me that the negative con
fession and judgment of the soul of the departed may originally
signify the actual confession and judgment of an applicant for
initiation into the secrets of the priesthood and the astronomical
and theological knowledge they so rigidly guarded from the igno-

823

388 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

rant multitude. The highest knowledge and most profound secret
they could impart was doubtlessly the acknowledgment and per
ception of the existence of a supreme power which governed the
universe on a certain plan, which the rulers of the land of Egypt
endeavored to apply to its organization and government in order
to make it a celestial kingdom upon earth.

The rigidly-adhered-to policy of the ruling caste was, however,
the shrouding and concealment of their store of knowledge from the
uninitiated and the gradual admission, of select individuals to the
inner chambers of secrecy. The following texts show that even
the true name of the supreme divinity was wrapped in impenetrable
mystery, but the assumption that we are dealing with a pole-star
god seems to enable us to penetrate the obscurity of the formulae
employed by the scribes to veil the true meaning of the texts.

Beginning with the hymn published by Mr. Wallis Budge, in his
useful handbook, " The Nile,"1 we find Amen-Ra addressed as
" King, One among the gods, myriad are his names, how many are

they, is not known the lord of Law, whose shrine is hidden,

. . . . whose name is hidden from his children in his name Amen"
... In the legend of Ra and Isis (xxth dynasty) he is designated
as " the god divine, the creator of himself, the creator of heaven,
earth, breath of life, fire, gods, men, beasts, cattle, reptiles, fowl
of the air, fish, king of men and gods, in form one, to whom
periods are as years, many of names, not known are they, not know
them the gods."z

The mysterious supreme god is further spoken of in the hymn

as " the lord of the uraeus crown, exalted of the plumes ;

the serpent Mehen, and the two ursei are the (ornaments) of his

face " Mention is likewise made of his "lordship over

the Sekti boat (which sailed from the place of rising in the East)
and the Atet boat (which sailed to the place of setting in the West) ;
he is also addressed as the " god Khepera in his boat." In many
passages he is apparently identified with the sun, "the eye of
Horus," but is at the same time, also addressed as Ani, the lord of
the New Moon festival and he is termed " the lord of all the gods
whose appearances are in the horizon." His all-embracing nature
is clearly conveyed by the passages terming him u the maker and

1 Reference is made to another translation of the hymn in the " Records of the Past,
Vol. II, pp. 127-136, and to Gr^baut, Hymne a Ammon Ra.

2 First steps in Egyptian, Mr. Wallis Budge, p. 235.

824

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 389

lord of things which are below and of things which are above;"
" of the heaven and earth." The above evidence suffices to show
that, on the one hand, Amen-Ra is constantly referred to as the
"One god, without a second, the knowledge of whose nature is
concealed from men and gods, who reveals himself in innumerable
forms ; who exerts hidden control and universal dominion and is
associated with stability and power, time and eternity." On the
other hand, stress is laid on his dual nature : Amen-Ra is bi-sexual
and self-creative ; alternately becomes light and darkness ; and
the sun and moon are the eyes of his " hidden face," which, liter
ally translated, yields Amen-Hra.

In the hymn previously cited he is also termed the " lord of the
sky, the establisher of all things, . . . the extender of foot-steps . . .
One in his times as among the gods . . . ." He is apostrophized
as " the maker of the gods, who hast stretched out the heavens
and founded the earth," u the chief who makest the earth like unto
himself," .... " President of the great cycle of the gods, only one

idthont his second .... living in Law every day 0

Form, one, creator of all things, 0 one only, maker of existences

he giveth the breath of life to (the germ) in the egg

Hail to thee, thou only one I He watches all peo
ple who sleep all people adore thee O thou ....

the untiring ivatcher, Arnsu-amen lord of eternity, the Maker of

Law " Another passage states : " the aten (disk) is thy

body" (i. e. image or symbol). In the legend of Ra and Isis,
quoted above, the god is made to say of himself : "I am the maker
of the hours, the creator of days, I am the opener of the festivals

of the year I am he who when he opens his eyes [4. e. the

sun and moon] becometh light, when he shutteth his two eyes, be-
cometh darkness." Brugsch tells us that Ra, whom he accepts as
the day-sun, was addressed as the master of double or two-fold
force, who illuminates the world with his two eyes and " was sym
bolized by two lions." Further on I shall quote facts establishing
that the king and queen of Egypt were respectively named the right
and left eye of Amen-Ra, were associated with sun and moon, re
garded as the personifications of Osiris and Isis, and that these
deities were represented in the form of uraeus serpents with human
heads, and that the two serpents were employed as symbols of
Upper and Lower Egypt. Mr. Wallis Budge informs us that
Ameu-Ra was named " bull ... in thy name of ' Amen bull of

825

390 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

his mother,' and that he was entitled 'lord of the thrones of the
two lands ;' 'king of the gods ;' ' maker of mortals ;' ' mighty law.' "
In one of his forms he is represented as wearing horns (an allusion
to duality and the title of bull) and feathers (= mat = maat = la\v)
and holding the emblems of stability, power, dominion and rule.

Before demonstrating that the chief astronomical signs of the
Egyptian zodiac partake of the nature of a rebus and express the
sound of the various attributes and titles and some of the ' ' myriad

0 ®f) tU&

I $ «

Ha Ha Ha. T^i !RoL

* £ 3. 4. 5.

,.„ ifli © A*

ft 10. 11. 12. 13.

of names " of the " hidden god," contained in the preceding texts,
I point out how clearly the conception of Amen-Ra, as shown in
these hymns and invocations, is consistent with a pole-star origin.
We have, moreover, the authoritative opinion of Brugsch that " the
hieroglyph and name Ra did not only refer to the day-sun, but also
designated certain brilliant stars," which he presumes to be the
planets (op. eft. i, p. 79). This identification of the name Ra
with stars involuntarily obliges one to recall the Sanscrit tara =
826

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 391

star while the Chinese employment of a plain circle to designate
'•star," also finds its analogy. Let us now examine the hieroglyphic
signs and symbols of Ra and note how intelligible they become
when the god is identified as Polaris.

The following (fig. 62) are some of the modes in which the
name Ra is found expressed in texts published in Mr. Wallis
Budge's " First steps in Egyptian :"
Fig. 62, 1. By a dot in the centre of a circle, the determinative

of u time."
" 2. By the latter accompanied by the image of a seated

god and the numeral 1.
<; 3. Idem, partly surrounded by a serpent in motion and

accompanied by the numeral 1 .
" 4. The serpent and circle on the head of a hawk-headed

seated god.

To these are added for purposes of comparison
" 5. The circle with two uraei.

u 6. Idem, to which a single uneus and a wring are at

tached.

" 7. Idem, with two unei and two wings.

" 8. Idem, with one wing.

9. Idem, accompanied by the numeral one and the sign

for heaven, to which a cross-shaped star is hanging.

u 10. Idem, resting in the centre of the summit of a twin

mountain.

u 11. Idem, resting in the centre of a boat.

t; 12. Idem, with a central star instead of a dot constitut

ing the word duat = '• lower hemisphere " (Brugsch).
" 13. The variant of this, cited by Brugsch.

u 14. The disk containing a single eye.

My prolonged study of the ancient Mexican picture-writings
having given me the habit of regarding each primitive symbol as
a possible rebus led me to look up the phonetic values of the sym
bols combined with the Ra sign and to note that some of them
were actually mentioned in connection with Amen-Ra in the texts
cited above, namely : the face, the eye, the egg, the uraBtis, the
disk, the u serpent Mehen." It was a surprise to find, on simply
referring to the glossaries, that the name for uroeus i= ara and
that eye = ari ; an egg = ar (also sa, se, and suht) ; face =. hra ;

827

392

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

each word thus containing the name Ra = god, in simple or inverted
form (see fig. 63, 1-4). The natural inference was that I had ob
tained aa insight into the method devised by the ingenious Egyptian
priesthood, to express, in cryptic form, the name of the " hidden
god."

Further glimpses of light seemed obtained when I found that,

cm.

te-nX
7.

tet

iet

tftt

11.

f5.

19.

20.

22.

as written by German Egyptologists, the determinative for divin
ity, the banner =: nutar, notar, netar, or neter, not only expressed
the same sound as the word nut, but also contained the letters "r"
and "a" (5). The disk — a tun, aton or aten might also be regarded

828

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 393

as an anagram, being the inverted form of nutar, minus the last
letter (6). The names for wing (7) being tun, ton or ten, the
wing attached to the disk constituted a complementary sign, dupli
cating the final syllable. At the same time, as a second name for
wing was meh, or mah (cf. mat and its synonym su = feather) ,
there seemed to be an explanation of the "serpent mehen " ap
plied to Amen-Ra and the possibility that it signified the " winged
serpent," such as is frequently depicted in texts published by
Brugsch (8). It was obvious that the uraeus = ara and the wing
meh, would form an ingenious anagram expressing, by means of
the signs, a-meh-ra, the name Arnen-Ra.

The constantly recurring form of the Ra sign, in which the ser
pent is represented as gliding around the circle, enclosing the cen
tral point of fixity, naturally suggests the inference that this
variant must have been adopted at a time when the constellation
Draco, the " Old serpent," or "Nakkasch qodmun," was circum-
polar and was equally familiar, under this name, to the Egyptian
and Euphrateau astronomers. This inference seems to be con
firmed by the fact that, in the hymn to Amen-Ra, cited above,
the name Nak is given to " the serpent with knives stuck in his
back," who, according to the myth, was the demon of night and
the enemy of the sun-god, the ruler of day. The fact that, in the
temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes, a service was recited daily for the
destruction of the serpent Nak by Horus, appears to indicate
the growth of the idea of a combat between light and darkness
and the dual forces of nature, which would naturally tend to create
the thought of an antagonism existing not only between the sexes,
but also between the two divisions of Egypt and the separate cults
of the nocturnal heaven (Polaris and the moon) and the diurnal
heaven (the sun).

In the list of festivals, dating from the Ptolemaic period and in
scribed in the temple at Edfu, there are mentioned: "the festi
val of the end or point of the triangle," simultaneous with that of
u the serpent Nai or Na," immediately followed by " the festivals
of the ' tena' = [aten?], and of the great serpent Na," and " of
the Ken •=. the festival of darkness, and of the red serpent Na"
(Brugsch op. tit. i, p. 51). Commenting upon the above names I
draw attention to the curious fact that in the above word ken, we
seem to have the inversion of uak, the name of the " night-ser
pent" and that na is actually the inversion of the word an, which

829

394 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

signifies " he who turns or winds himself around. " I shall show
further on, in astronomical texts, that this name is actually iden
tified with the pole.

When these facts are borne in mind the full import of the famil
iar Egyptian symbol for eternity = tet, becomes clear. It con
sists of the image of a mummy, symbolizing fixity, around which
a great serpent is winding itself, conveying the idea of circling
motion (fig. 63, 9 and 10). It is well known that this group sym
bolized eternity =r tet and the sign i^ always interpreted as ex
pressing the sound tet. If analyzed more closely, however, and
interpreted as a rebus, it appears to yield a fund of deeper mean
ing.

The serpent Na furnishes the word An = the winder or he who
moves around. Linked to one of the names for mummy = sah,
the group might be read as An-sah, a name which invites compar
ison with Anshar, the Assyrian pole-star god who was said to shoot
arrows in all directions, i. e. to turn around, and the Akkadian
title for Ursa Major, Akanna — the Lord of Heaven. The second
name for mummy, given in Mr. Wallis Budge's Nile, is tut, the
exact word which signifies " to engender," which explains why
images of the creator should have been made in mummy form. The
word tut directs attention to the name of the god Tehuti— Thoth,
" the Measurer," a name to be weighed in connection with the fact
that time was measured by the circumpolar constellations. It does
not appear impossible that the word khat =. corpse may also have
been brought into use in the rebus and furnished an anagram or
allusion to the ak or centre.

The other well-known symbol for eternity, i. e. stability, is the
column tet, representing a pillar usually consisting of four or five
parts (fig. 63, 11). It appears hitherto to have escaped attention
that the Egyptian for hand being tet, the hand, employed as a rebus,
would actually express the name for eternity and may well have
been employed as a secret sign for the divine centre, eternal sta
bility and the sacred number five, consisting of the Middle and the
Four Quarters, symbolized by the fingers and thumb (fig. 63, 12).
To this must be added the interesting fact that, in hieratic script,
the hand expressed the sound " a " which means " power " while
aa = great, aat = great and mighty, aa = mighty one. To those
initiated in the mysteries of hieroglyphic writing the hand thus
clearly constituted a rebus, expressing the eternal, permanent, sta-
830

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

395

ble, great, mighty power, one yet double and fourfold, the sacred
five in one, the Middle and Four Quarters.1

The following is a group of animal and other figures, which are
repeated, with variations of form, combination and position, in the
different zodiacs.

The principal and the phonetic values of their names are figured
as follows : the thigh = uart, khepes or maskhet; the bull, ox or
cow — ka, ah, ana; the hawk = bak, designated as an, kher or
heu m Horns ; the cynocephalus ape and phallus = aaani and ka ;
the lion = mahes ; the jackal (anubis) uher or sabi ; the scorpion
z=tart or serkhet ; the crocodile = sebek, also amsuk or emsuh,

FIG. 64.

and seta ; the vase or jar = nu (cf. nut) ; the female hippopota
mus = tebt, shown by Dr. Gensler to have been associated with
the name menat = nurse, she who nurses (see Brugsch i, p. 130).

1 An extremely interesting instance of the hand being actually figured between the
sun and the moon, i. e. as the symbol of the Middle, is to be seen on the Phoenician
tablet to Baal Hamman and Tanitla, from Carthage, preserved at the British Museum
and figured by Mr. Goodyear, fig. 64, 1. Above the hand is a group of symbols con
sisting of two S shaped signs, resembling the Mexican picture of Ursa Major. Be
tween these is a pyramid and above this a seven-petalled conventionalized tlower,
which should be compared with fig. 64, 3, a copy of the familiar flower on the sacred
tree of the Assyrians. In fig. 64, '2, copied from another Phoenician tablet (Good
year), the flower occupies the central position between two hands; the latter taking
the places of sun and moon in the tablet 1, an interesting detail considering the in
stances cited, showing that dual rulership was indiscriminately associated with
" right and left hand " or " the sun and moon."

831

12.

15.

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 397

In the Eclfu zodiac, the latter, whose name furnishes an anagram
of amen =r hidden, is represented with the Ra sign on her head
and holds a cord to which the constellation of Ursa Major is
attached. This is figured, with its seven stars, as the thigh (pi. v, 2) ,
with the head of a bull, elements which furnish the phonetic values
of uart, khepes or maskhet and aua, ka or ah, to which should
be added that the Egyptian mode of saying " a bull" m ua en ka,
literally " one of bull," the female form being " uat en ka" (see
Wallis Budge, First steps in Egyptian).

After having studied the hymns and invocations to Amen-Ra we
are aware, not only that the " hidden god " is named "• the bull,"
but that great stress is laid upon his being k' One " = ua, yet double
— ka. It therefore appears very significant to find these words
incorporated in the name for Ursa Major = thigh, uart, and this
combined with bull = ua or ka which furnishes the anagram ak =.
middle. What is more, the second name for thigh being khepes,
this might form a rebus for the common name for (1) luminary or
star in general =: khebs or khabs, literally, lights, lamps, flames,
cf. seb = star ; (2) kheper — life, existence, to come into existence,
cf: khepdes = uterus, kher khepd = the navel, khepesh = power.

The fact that one title of Amen-Ra was Khepera = the creator,
lends additional interest to the association of his secret sign, the
hippopotamus, with the constellation Ursa Major, which he appar
ently holds and guides and which emblematizes life, i. e. motion-
The thigh =: khepes, scarab = kheper, fish, khepanen, crocodile
= seta or sebek, which, inverted, yields the word khebes = star,
and royal sickle i= khepes, thus appear to have been but different
modes of expressing the same meaning and the title of Khepera
(fig. 63, 13-16). It can be readily understood why the scarab
beetle, which encloses its egg in a ball of mud and rolls this to a
safe hatching place, became the favorite secret sign for the u hidden
god," since none but the initiated would see in the beetle, holding
the ball of earth enclosing its egg, the actual rebus of Khepera,
the creator, expressed by the kheper ; and the circle or disk, the
sign of Ra, containing the germ of life.

Returning to an examination of the signs for Ursa Major em
ployed by the Egyptian astronomer scribes, we find, beside the
more elaborate form given by Mr. Wallis Budge (pi. v, 3), the
variants (4 and 5) which constantly recur in the texts published bv
Brugsch, and which reveal that the thigh, accompanied by a single
p. M. PAPERS i 53 833

398 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

star, constituted the essential elements of the sign. It is one of
the curiosities of Egyptian hieroglyphics that the image of a star
may express either sebz= star, or the numeral five = tuau. This
being the case, and the word for thigh being either khepes oruart, it
is obvious that the thigh and star yield more than one interpretation
from the rebus point of view, and may either be read as seb
khepdes, seb-uart or tuau-uart — in one case containing the divine
title kt creator" and in the second a play upon the name uairr One,
the favorite appellation given to Amen-Ra.

The following star names contained in the Brugsch texts, and
which have avowedly not been satisfactorily identified, up to the
present, will speak for themselves and will be found to be compre
hensible and appropriate only when identified with Polaris : Seb-
uati = the lone, single, only, or sole star (cf. title " One" given to
Amen-Ra); Seb-seta — the hidden star, in Greek texts, sebkhes,
sebkhe, the sebses, anagrams of khebs, or khepdes (cf. " hidden"
god). This star is found pictured in the astronomical texts by a
turtle, the name for which is seta, sita, sit or set; in Greek texts
cit.

To me it seems clear that the turtle constituted a rebus sign for
the "hidden star" and concealed god, and I find that another
Egyptian word could have served equally well for the same pur
pose, viz , seta = the vulture. AVhat is more, the following names,
mentioned in the astronomical texts, yield the sound of the first
vowel of the words seb = star and seta = hidden, and attention
is drawn to the fact that, as the goose and egg, for instance,
were known under several names, the secrecy of the true meaning
of these sacred symbols was insured : goose =r se, ser, sar, seb,
smeu, apt, aq ; egg = se, sa, ser, sar, ar, suht; nest = ses ;
pool of water = se ; heron = sent.

A curious double similarity of sound exists between the name
for turtle and one of the names for goose, inasmuch as the turtle
= seta is also called aps, and the goose = se is named apt (fig. 63,
17-18). Another name for goose being aq or ak, we find that
its value as a rebus must have been supreme, since it so perfectly
expressed the word ak — middle. A proof that its merits were
duly appreciated by the ancient scribes, is its constant and wide
spread employment in decorative art as a so-called " solar sym
bol," in association with the circle or disk and the swastika.
Through its name se, the goose-symbol likewise expressed the
831

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 399

same meaning as the egg and the first syllable of seta = hidden ;
perhaps also ne-se-r — tlame, the synonym of khebs = luminary or
star (Brngsch). Through its name ak, the goose symbol became
the synonym of all ak or ka words. Finally, through its name apt,
it became related to the whole series of anagrams of ptah and the
synonym of the pair of horns which express ap in hieratic script.

The association of the syllable ap with the bull = uau and ka, is
proven by the name Apis given to the living, sacred bull, under
which form the supreme divinity was worshipped from earliest
times, at or before the building of the pyramids at Memphis. The
explanation that, just as sacred bull was merely a living rebus ex
pressing by the sound of its names, the words " the one, the double,
the middle of the central two- fold one," or '• divine twain," fully
explains why, in time, the bull itself came to be chosen, revered and
worshipped as the living image of the u hidden god."

The marks of the sncred calf Apis, described by Herodotus,
appear to become intelligible, when translated as follows and then
analyzed: " It is black ikhem or kam) and has a square (ptah)
spot of white (hetet) on the forehead (tehen). On the back (of
the head) (makha or at) the figure of an eagle = vulture (seta).
In the tail (pen?) double (ka) hairs (anem). On the tongue (nes)
a beetle (kheper)."

Feeling convinced that Egyptologists could find further phonetic
elements and hidden meaning in the above material, it is with diffi
dence that I point out some of the meaning I am able to discern
with the simple aid of "• First steps in Egyptian." Besides being
the image of Amen-Ra Polaris, the one and divine twain, the black
(khem) skin (auuu) of the sacred bull appears to contain an allu
sion to Egypt, known as ''khem" and its central capital Aimu,
besides that to the nocturnal heaven and its shining city. The
square ptah of white — hetet (<•/. hetet, and chut =. light) appears
to symbolize the quadriform plan of the celestial and terrestrial
kingdom and its position on the head (tep) between the two horns
(ap) gains in significance when it is realized that, in astronomical
texts, the square (designated above as hetet = white) is as fre
quently pictured between a pair of horns as the pillar — tet, that
both square and pillar appear thus to have expressed the same
sound rr tet, which signifies eternity. The bird of prey =r seta
on the bull's back (makha) evidently signified the hidden = seta,
centre, m-akh-a, further significance being lent to the syllable akh

835

400 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

by the fact that it also means kl to support," and that " the support
of heaven " was a divine title contained in the hieratic texts. The
double hair =. anem, ka, appears as another mode of expressing
the " hidden " ka = double or ak =. centre. The word for tongue
(nes) being the reversal of sen = two, the kheper = life, on the
tongue, appears as an allusion to dual principles or powers of na
ture. The giving forth and drawing in of breath by the living
Apis bull must doubtlessly have seemed, to the Egyptian priest
hood, emblematical of the giving and, taking away of breath of life,
by the creator, Khepera, over whose emblem, on the tongue of the
animal, each breath necessarily passed.

An insight may thus be gained of the method by means of which
primitive, naive picture-writing could have become more ingenious
and intricate until, as actually stated in the hymns, the name of
the supreme divinity became " hidden from his children in the
name Amen" [literally = hidden], and a " myriad of names, how
many are they is not known" had been invented b}T the scribes, to
designate the King (Hak), "one among gods, in form one, the lord
of eternity, stability and law."

Before making a cursory examination of the following lists of
homonyms of the names for bull — ah, uau and ka, I must revert
to astronomical pictures and signs and make some statements con
cerning the hawk-headed human form found represented in the
zodiacs in close association with the image of Ursa Major, the bull ;
(see pi. v, 1, from Denderah). The presence of the hawk = bak in
the centre of the polar region, with the bull ka, assumes signifi
cance in connection with the word ak — middle and the name for
" the middle of the heavens," cited by Sir Norman Lockyer ; ?'. e.,
kabal sami, and all of these words are particularly interesting when
it is remembered that the Babylonian name for north was akkad,
the Akkadian title for Ursa Major was Akanna, while Ursa Minor
was named Kakkabu in Babylonia and Assyria. The Arabian
kaaba is recalled here.

The inscriptions accompanying the zodiacs published by Brugsch
(op. cit. i, p. 127) designate this hawk-headed personage, who, in
each case, holds either a spear or a plain staff, by the following
names, of which I give Brugsch's translation, followed by my own
commentary. An — he who turns or winds himself around. In
this connection I point out that the name Na, given to the serpent,
is the inversion of an. Kher-an =. he who fights and turns or

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 401

winds himself around. As kher is likewise the word for ring or
circle (cf. Greek kirkos, Latin circus or circulus, Scand. kring),
it is evident that the name Kher-an admits of being interpreted as
'- he who winds or turns around in a ring or circle," kher = the
fighter or combatant. At the same time, the word kher likewise
signifies ring or circle; moreover ker — night and rek = time.
Therefore the name Neb-kher, cited by Brugsch (op. cit. i, 176),
as one of those given to the god of the city of At-Nebes, besides
signifying, a? he says, the " lord of strife or fighting," clearly
means u the lord of the circle or ring." This is undoubtedly one
of the most appropriate of names for the god of the pole star and
Ursa Major and is, besides, the Egyptian equivalent for the Hindu
" lord of the wheel," the Persian "god of the ring," and the Mexi
can "lord of the circle and of the night " = Yaual or Yohual-
tecuhtli. The other titles of the same god recorded by Brugsch are
" the flame or light " = Neser, and " the lord of life" = Neb-ankh.

I merely point out here what I shall discuss more fully later on,
that, in the Egyptian An, fct he who turns himself around," we have
the counterpart, not only of the Assyrian An-shar (fig. 65, 5) who
shoots his darts in all directions, but also of the " North god " of
the ancient Mexicans, who, fully armed is held by one foot, by the
sign of the North, to the centre of the cross, the symbol of the
Four Quarters, and like the Akkadian " lord of heaven," Akanna,
is identified with Ursa Major.

1 note, moreover, that, whereas the common name for hawk is
bak, that employed by Brugsch is hru (cf. inversion ur =: the Egyp
tian name for cross symbol) which is sometimes transcribed as
hur, her or heru, hor or liar — and translated as Horns or Ka Har-
machis. An interesting image of the hawk god is found in another
inscription in the temple of Denderah containing the group (pi. v,
6) consisting of a single star, the bull and hawk, transcribed by
Brugsch as " Hru-Ka " and translated as "the bull (of) Horns"
(op. cit. i, p. 7). Another interesting case of the combination of
the bull and hawk is the hawk with a bull's head also figured by
Brugsch, and which is obviously a variant of " hru-ka." A curi
ous instance which seems to contain a reversal of these syllables
is the bull, repeated in inverted positions, with the cross-sign =
ur, a group whicli might well have been employed as a rebus ex
pressing the sound ur-ak-ka, a combination which I shall discuss
further on.

837

402

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

The identity of Horns us a form of Polaris is hinted at in the
following inscription in the temple at Denderah (pi. A', 10) which
Brugsch translates : "Ra Horclmti (= hur-chuti) the shining Horns,
the ray of light in the night1' .... (op. cit. i, p. 16). The ugod"
is figured in mummy form, holding the sceptre tarn (cf. mat =

justice, truth) and the sign ankh (life), with the head of a hawk =.
bak or hru (cf. ur ==. four, and head = tep or tepet, also name for
*' chief"), the head conveying idea of four-fold chieftainship, sur
mounted by the horns — ap and circle or disk — ra.

An extremely suggestive astronomical picture (pi. v, 13) contains
838

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 403

the combination of Horns, the An, in the form of the human-
headed hawk, with a serpent Na, the boat (uaa, am or makhen)
and the circle enclosing a single star, dnat (cf. ua =r one) . The
complete group thus conveys a wealth of hidden meaning which is
perfectly intelligible when interpreted as pole-star symbolism.

The reader is now invited to take a preliminary look at the
columns of signs included in figs. 6G, 67, 68, some of which will
be recognized as primitive pole-star symbols already discussed,
and which will respectively be found to contain homonyms of ua =
One and uahi =. permanent ; ak and kabal = centre, ka — double,
an := he who turns and ankh = life, etc. Special attention is also
drawn to the modes of expressing the syllable am by the homonyms
boy or child, boat and tree (fig. 63, 20-22).

Different combinations of identical phonetic elements are found
in the following groups which prove to be but different ingenious
figures expressing the same sounds, with more or less the same
meanings: pi. v, 15, represents the boat, whose phonetic values
are given above, with a flower = ankh, the homonym of life, con
taining the names an and na, from which the urseus = ara, is ris
ing. Later on the deeper symbolism of this and fig. 12, pi. v,
will be further discussed. In the latter, instead of the flower the
"boat contains the ara and a boy =. ah or aah, whose name is the
homonym for great, mighty, powerful, etc. Assuming that the boat
expressed its particular name uaa — ua =r one, we thus have a
rendering of the appellation so constantly given to Amen-Ra in the
hymns and invocations : " One, great, powerful, mighty god," ac
companied by a whole series of secondary meaning and symbolism.
In pi. v, 9, the boat containing the bull or cow, is accompanied by
stars which reproduce Ursa Major exactly, minus one star, the head
of the animal occupying the centre of the four stars forming the
inverted square of " the dipper." In this case the boat seems to
express its name makhen, incorporating ak, the name for the sacred
centre of the sky, which is repeated in the name ka =. bull, wrhose
image, like that of the boat, conveys the allusion to ua — one, by
their respective double names, ana and uaa.

What appears to me to contain the most convincing proof of
the identity of Ameu-Ra with Polaris is 11, pi. v, which shows us
a boat in which lies a mummy, above which is a row of seven stars
under an oval, containing two eyes. The oval ring is evidently
the image of Amen-Ra, who united in his person the dual princi-

8159

404 KEY-NOTE OF AMCIKXT

pies of nature symbolized by sun and moon = his " two eyes."
The symbolism of the boat and mummy has already been suffi
ciently discussed to enable the reader to discern its association
with the idea of oneness, of stability and centrnlity. Further light
is thrown upon the connection of the two eyes with the sacred
centre by pi. v, 14, from the Book of the Dead, where the chosen
place of sepulchre for the dead person, mentioned in the text, is
the temple pyramid, the apex of which is rendered prominent by
being painted black and suggestively occupies a central position
between two eyes. After the periods of Greek rule in Egypt, the
point of the pyramid must have been associated with the Greek
words, akra = hill-top and aku = point, which recurs in the Latin
name acacia, by which the thorny tree, originally found in Egypt,
is still known. It can readily be seen how this tree would have been
chosen as a symbol of the ak = middle and it is possible that its
name may originally have been that also given to the olive tree =
bak. The inscription on the famous obelisks erected by queen
Hat-shepsut contains a special mention of the point of the obelisk,
as being made of precious material : " two great obelisks of hard
granite of the south, the point of each is of electrum, the tribute
of the best quality of all countries" (Hinders Petrie, History of
Egypt, Vol. n, p. 86).

The many variants of the constellation or star termed " the
divine triangle" or u the triangle of the god " next claim attention.
An extremely interesting variant of this constellation represents a
hawk-headed sphinx, next to the triangle (pi. vi, 1); 2-4 repre
sent the common form expressing the name Sopedet. As Brugsch
informs us, the above name was changed at a more recent period
into Satit (6-8), which he translates as "she who shoots, the
archeress " or " she who causes the Nile to rise." In these cases
the written name either contains an arrow (6), the pyramid symbol
for earth (7), or a seated figure above whose head is a single star
(8). A rarer form of representing the same constellation is 9
and 10, the group being transcribed by " Satit Hont Kliabsu"
which Brugsch translates as " Sothis, the Queen of the . . . stars."
From the feminine terminations employed in the text it is clear
that it is a cow which figures here in the boat, with a single star
between its horns and it appears to me to be obvious that we have
to deal here with the feminine form of Polaris, with Auset == Isis,
closely related to the Assyrian ''goddess of battle," Ishtar, the
840

Papers,

Vol. I, No. 7", F»l. VI.

|A^

406 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

female counterpart of Ausar = Osiris, the Assyrian Anshar, or
Aslmr, the " ' god of battle."

This view is confirmed by further astronomical pictures published
by Brugsch, which appear to me not merely to signify the constel
lations Orion and Sirius as Brugsch infers, but to be hieroglyphs
intended to be understood by the initiated only, representing two
or more of the forms under which Amen-Ra was figured. At Edfu
(pi. vi, 11) the boat = au, uaa, and the mummy — sah form a fair
rebus for Ausar =. Osiris, while the boat alongside of it contains
the cow, a form under which Isis == Hathor was worshipped in
Egypt during centuries. At Denderah (12) there is a cow in one
boat := Isis ; and a man in another who holds the sceptre tarn, em
blematic of power, and turns his head around, an evident allusiou
to the action an = he who turns himself around, or to sah =. one
who turns away. Between both is the hawk — bak or Hur-chuti —
Horns, standing on the sceptre named ant, composed of the lotus
flower = aukh. A variant of the same group (13) also symbolizing
the "Above, Below and Middle," and from Denderah, represents
Isis only in the celestial boat and Osiris standing (on earth) hold
ing, beside the tarn, the whip = uekhe khu, emblematic of rule.
In 14, a female figure stands in the boat under the written name
Auset =. Isis and bears in her hand the ankh sign and the lotus
flower =. aukh sceptre. In the second boat the figure of a boy
(ahi) turning (an or sah) his head, holds up the ankh. In 15,
we seem to have an evidence of 1he ascendancy of Isis worship,
for the boat contains not only the cow, under the name satit =
she who shoots, or the archeress, but also the standing figure of
the goddess, crowned by the disk or circle between two horns.

A striking proof that the knowledge of the true, hidden mean
ing of the signs just discussed was regarded by those who pos
sessed it as an evidence of an advanced stage of initiation in the
mysteries of the priesthood, is furnished by the following text,
which accompanies pi. vi, 16:

In the Book of the Dead (Leyden, Papyrus, p. 16), in a chap
ter entitled : " Chapter of the knowledge of the eastern spirits,
ro en rex bin abti," the dead person utters the following words : "I
know that eastern mountainous region of the heaven whose south
is at the sea Kharo and the north at the river of Ro, at the place
where the day-god Ra drives around amidst storm-winds. I am a
welcome comrade in the boat and I row without tiring in the bark

842

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 407

of Ra. I know that tree of emerald green branches amongst which
Ra shows himself when he goes over the layer of clouds of the
god Su. I know that gate out of which Ra issues. I know the
meadow of alo, whose wall is of iron I know the east
ern .s/wvY.s, namely the god Hnr-Chuti, the calf next to this god and
the fjod of the morning," the original text of the latter sentence
being : u an-a-rekh-kn-a bill abti Hur-chuti pu behsu kher nutar
pen nutar duaut pu" (Brugsch, op. tit., i, p. 72).

The evasion and caution with which the speaker alludes to
his knowledge of the meaning of the signs, without betraying
the latter, sufficiently indicate the obligation of absolute secrecy
which bound him. and it may be inferred that several of the words
he employed were intended to be misleading to an outsider just as
the astronomical pictures, exposed to public view, were purposely
made to seem to relate to the more familiar sun, moon and con
stellations, the mind being thus led away from the hidden but true
star-god = Polaris. The circumstance that, on the body of the
young bull in the boat, there are seven dots and above it a single
star and that the hawk-headed seated deity behind it is crowned
by the serpent circle or disk of Amen-Ra, sufficiently enlightens
us as to the true, veiled significance which represents different
forms of the "hidden god," of the group. A careful analysis of
this and of the astronomical images suffices, however, to disclose the
limited scope of the meaning of such groups, each one being but
a different rebus containing the same phonetic elements. Let us
now briefly indicate what appear to have been the essential com
ponents which all images contain and a few of the myriad of ways
by which they were expressed.

Uahi= 'permanent, and Ua=0ne. Represented by

Fig. 66. 1 . An arrow =r au (cf. abau =. to fight), an arm= a,
and the numerical one = ua.

4i •* 2. The cow — ah, ana, the latter name incorporating
the adjective a := mighty, powerful, etc.

*• •' 3. The thigh — uart.

^ " 4. The boat = naa.

ti ik 5. The numeral five — tuau.

u " 6. The throne, seat or place = auset, which consti
tutes the name Auset = Isis, the consort of
Ausar = Osiris.

8-13

408 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Fig. 66. 7. The bowl = an.
u " 8 and 9. Two forms of sceptre or bent staff = an, uat,

also a am.

Besides these signs, well known as sacred symbols, we find that
the following names also contain the sacred title Ua : natet =.
greenstone, emerald, ant = quadrupeds, an — heir, also dog, maau
= rays of light, man =: lion, also cat. The reason why certain

I 6

I -- I

i ^~ au$et

afa

2 ah. s

u at.

v a-rt uu,

l{em,

* * inn

C u ct if 11

F]Q. 66

quadrupeds, and particularly the cow, lion, and the cat, should
have become sacred animals in Egypt, seems to be satisfactorily
explained by the fact that each constituted a rebus and could
therefore be employed as an '• image " of the One god. It is ob
vious that locality would necessarily influence the choice of the
844

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 409

sacred animal and that while one city might adopt the cow, another
would be obliged to adopt the cat, etc , as the living rebus. The
adoption of u the heir," or first-born of the sacramental union of
king and queen, as the living image of the deity, throws an unex
pected light on the reason why members of the royal line were
treated with divine honors. While persons, animals and objects
whose names contained the divine Ua — one, would thus be chosen,
others containing the word Ra = god, would also be adopted.

Ra = god.

Of these I have already pointed out the uneus = ara, the eye
:= ari, face = hni and egg =. ar, also se or sa and suht. To these
may also be added the date palm or dates = ben- r.i ; grain =
nepra ; the vine = aarer and grapes = aarer, each of which is to
be found associated with sacred symbolism.

The veneration accorded in different localities to the pig = re-ra
and the horse, may thus be accounted for, especially as the name
for the latter, hct-ra, consists of het = light or fair, and ra —
god, and the horse is actually found associated with the light-gods
of antiquity and with so-cnlled solar symbols and the swastika.

Food for reflection is afforded by the Egyptian name for mirror,
which literally signifies to see, or the seer = maa, of the face =
hra, but which furnishes, as a rebus, the word maat =. law, which
is usually expressed by the feather = mat, connected with hra =
i. e. ra=r god (fig. 66, 10). The employment of the mirror as an
image of the god of law would thus naturally have been suggested
by its name. The presence of the eye = ari (cf. ra) in the centre
of a mirror which is being worshipped, also suggests that in ancient
Egypt the mirror was employed in the temple to hold the reflection
of Polaris = Amen-Ra, u the untiring watcher, the lord of eternity
and the maker of law " (see fig. 66, 11). Jt is obvious that the
habitual employment, by the astronomer priests, of a mirror so
placed in the sanctuary as to catch the reflection of the pole-star
through an open doorway, would lead to the discovery of the
movements of the sun and the positions it assumes during the year.
The flashing of a beam of sunlight once a year, at the period
of the summer solstice, upon the mirror which constantly reflected
the pole-star, would naturally suggest the idea of " the union of
the day-sun with the night-sun " and seem particularly impressive
as it was at this period that the Nile began to rise. In dealing

845

410 KEY-NOTE OK ANCIENT

with the religious festivals held at this period more will be said
on this subject.

The word maat = law, besides being expressed by the feather —
mat, could also have been indicated to those initiated in the mys
teries of hieratic rebus-writing, by the lion = ma lies ; the ante
lope = ma-het, which also contains the sacred attribute light =
het, the synonym of khu, thus expresses the idea of the " light of
the law." The musical instrument named mat may also have
originally been, like the tarn sceptre,' a symbol of lawful power and
conveyed an allusion to meht or maht = north. To this series
the word am should be added, signifying child, tree and boat, each
of which has already been treated of in connection with pole-star
symbolism and Amen-Ra (fig. 63, 20-22).

Duality z= Aa = double ; and the Middle = aA.

The name for bull— ka (fig. 67, 1) incorporates, as has already
been shown, not only duality and middle, but also, through its
other names, tlie idea of oneness and of power. This appears to
explain clearly why the bull was chosen as the image or rebus of
Polaris and Ursa Major, which appear to have been regarded as a
single combination of stars. The fact that in the hymns Amen-
Ra is addressed as " the bull," constitutes a convincing corrobo-
ration of the identification of the *' hidden god" with Polaris. A
line of connection seems, moreover, to exist between the Egyptian
kabal sami=the middle of heaven, the image of a bull in the
centre of the zodiacs, and the bull of Assyria, under which image
Baal was worshipped.

Hieratic signs, expressing the word for middle and double ap
pear to have been : the mummy which, although named sah or tut,
also signified khat= corpse (2) and conveyed an allusion to mit =
death, the homonym of met = north.

A certain form of fish expressed the syllable kha (3). A cone-
shaped object named khaker appears to have served as a rebus for
the middle and double as well as night =. ker and time = rek (4) .
In pi. vir, 12, the khaker figures behind the seated image of a deity
with the head of a ram = ser or sar, holding the ankh in his hand,
the whole forming a rebus for Ansar, and containing much meaning
besides.

Kha-ut (fig. 67, 5) is the name for the sacrificial offering laid on
846

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 411

the utu = altar, which is shaped like the tau and symbolizes the
above and below by its perpendicular and horizontal lines. In the
centre of this is the bread =. ta (the homonym of ta — earth, cf.
neb-at = fire), which is remarkable on account of its division into
four parts analogous to that of nut= city, a feature which justifies
the inference that the word for cake =: sen-nu made with honey =.
bat or net, is intended to be expressed here. A jar stands at each

}-*?— 1 6

Ko,

"' - *

«-

a/U

f „

Kha-ut

FIG. 67.

side of the cake, which is placed on edge so as to exhibit the sacred
design upon it. It is significant that, if the jars contained wine
— arp, milk = art, the name of the liquid constituted an anagram
of ra, if perfume = anta was present, this furnished the syllables
an and ta — earth. It is, of course, impossible to surmise how far
such resemblances of sounds influenced the choice of sacred offer
ings.

847

412 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

The kha (fig. 67, 6) = crown is particularly interesting as Amen-
Ra is addressed as u crowned form," the lord of the ureret crown,
.... beautiful of tiara, exalted of the white crown .... on whose
brow the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt is established.
It appears, therefore, evident that the crown = kha was but another
mode of expressing ka = double. At the same time it likewise
conveyed the idea of ak=the centre and the act of crowning a
sovereign appears as vested with deep symbolical meaning when
it is realized that, according to the' primitive modes of thought I
have been tracing, by enclosing the head of the king in a circlet
he was constituted the hak, regent or central chief, the living
image of Ra, whose sign was the star or dot in the circle or ring.

Ka (duality) is commonly expressed by an uplifted pair of
arms ; a variant being the whole figure of a man with raised arms
(7 and 8). The fact that the name for phallus was also ka, ex
plains its employment as a sacred symbol, recorded by Herodo
tus, which proves to what extremes the ancient rebus- writers went
in their naive invention and multiplication of secret signs and modes
of expressing the names and attributes of their u hidden god."
The hatred and disgust conceived by the great reformer Ameuo-
phis IV, against all that pertained to the cult of Amen-Ra, his
destruction of all images devised by the priesthood and adoption of
a pure image of the supreme divinity of a plain disk or circle,
with rays terminating in hands, are readily understood in connec
tion with the above.

Returniu^ to our list of akh words : the akh or centre is figured

O ™

by a man between two signs for heaven = pet, supporting the
upper heaven with both hands; the idea ka = double or dual,
being simultaneously expressed (9).

The hawk = bak (10) constitutes so perfect a rebus or anagram
of middle = ak and kabal, as well as for khab — star, that the rea
son why the hawk was chosen as an image or form of Amen-Ra is
as reasonably accounted for as the choice of the bull. Before
supporting this assertion by a series of convincing proofs, the
following list must be studied :

An r= he who turns himself around (i. e. v:ho perform* a circuit —
the circuiteer) and anJch =. life.

In the " First steps in Egyptian " I find the word " an " expressed
by (fig. 68, 1) a man in the act of turning around, resembling the po-

848

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 413

sition of the male deity in the boat, already discussed and repre
sented in the astronomical texts (fig. 68, 2) by an
eye, the form of which differs from that of the eye —
ari ; (3) by a fish., also different in form from the
fish = kha, and particularly interesting if compared
to the fish khepanen, figured in the kheper series,
which constitutes a rebus combining the titles khe- j^^

pera =. creator and an = the circuited1; (4) by a 3
stone = aner, also by hair — anein ; (5) by two
arms spread outwards, recalling the position of the
front legs of quadrupeds ; (6) by a spear whose
shaft is inserted in a double stand ; which sign re- 3
curs in the name of the city Aunu, expressed by the
an : — spear, the vase z= nu and the nut determinative
for city or capital (7). It is extremely interesting ^

to compare, at this point, the Greek polus=a pole 4
or axis, and polls = city or capital, and to realize
that, in Egypt and Greece alike, the names for capi
tal are associated with the idea of centrifugal power
and rule.

The signification of all the above kkan" signs be- oflr\; at

comes intensified when it is realized that they con
veyed also the first two letters of the word ankh =
life, which was usually expressed by the familiar 6
symbol expressing the union of the dualities of *

nature (8) .

Amongst the many surprises received during the
course of this investigation, few have given me as [j\

much satisfaction and light, as the observation of 7 -*^®
the fact that the Egyptian name for flower, ankh (9) , Aimu

was the same as that for ''life." The full signifi
cance of the lotus blossom as a symbol became clear
to me, and my attention having been called by a
friend to Mr. William H. Goody ear's admirable
work " The Grammar of the Lotus," London, 1891, *,

I was able to obtain from it the series of Egyptian 9 HT
symbols which 1 now present and shall proceed to
interpret according to the method set forth in the
preceding pages. The interesting observation was FlG- fjs-

made by Mr. Goodyear that " the ankh was the exact counterpart
i>. M. PAPKKS i 54 £49

414

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

of the lotus as regards solar association " and in his work, on pi.
LXV and elsewhere, this close observer publishes several instances
illustrating this view. Of these I reproduce but two, which suffice,
feeling convinced that Mr. Goodyear will be as interested as I was
to hear that the ankh and lotus were homonyms of ankh = life.
This fact of itself fully explains why the lotus flower was employed
by the ancient Egyptians, as Mr. Goodyear states, as the " symbol
of life, immortality and of renaissance and resurrection and of
fecundity."

FIG. 69.

In fig. 69, 1, two (ka) fishes (khepanen or an) hold the lotus,
ankh, and thus constitute a sacred rebus, the profound meaning of
which can be surmised by studying the preceding pages. In 2, one
(ua) fish holds the ankh instead of the lotus. Both signs obviously
express precisely the same meaning with the difference that, in one
case duality is expressed by two fishes, and in the other by the ankh
symbol which emblematizes the union of nature's dualities.
" Fio-. 69, 3, shows the bull, carrying the circle of Ra between its

850

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 415

horns and wearing the ankh symbol hanging from its neck. The
lotus replaces this in 4, where the circle is missing and one bull
(ua en ku) expresses the mystic sacred words ua = One and ka =
double or "the divine Twain." It is evident that it is only when
it is assumed that pole-star worship constituted the basis of the
natural religion of the ancient Egyptians that their sacred sym
bols become intelligible.

Though a novice in Egyptology and with extremely limited works
of reference at hand, which facts will, I trust, excuse faults and
omissions, I perceive so much that is clear and simple in the fol
lowing series of P^gyptiau sacred symbols, culled from Mr. Good-
year's work, that 1 am tempted to submit my interpretation of their
meaning, thereby putting my view and method to a crucial test.

In pi. vn, 2, we have an interesting group uniting the boat, the
meaning of which has been discussed, a seated figure on a square
pedestal, a column, the upper portion of which is separate and
simulates the bowl or cup = au, the dot and circle, the sign of
Amen-Ra, and a single flower. As a rebus, some of the words ex
pressed are am, uaa or makhen =. boat, tet — column, Ra = dot
and circle, also seated figure, determinative of god = Ra, and ua en
ankh — one flower. While the rebus supplies the words ua — one,
uahi — permanent, ra = god, an = the circuiteer, ankh = life,
tet = eternal, it is only when identified as pole-star symbolism that
the group becomes comprehensible.

Pointing out that, in the above, we have a clear case of the flower
in association with the Ra sign and other symbols which have been
discussed as pole-star signs, let us next examine 1, 3, 4, 6 and 8,
in each of which one blossom — ua en aukh, constitutes the em
blem for the sacred Middle, and openly conveys the idea of the
verb an, to perform a circuit and ankh = life.

The fact that, in 6, the flower consists of five petals, on four
of which the genii of the four quarters stand, sufficiently proves
that the flower, like the five-dot group, constituted a symbol of
the four quarters and centre, the latter being figured as a pyra
mid-shaped petal. Interesting variants of this group are 5, with
the four genii standing on seven of the nine petals of the flower,
which is placed between two buds, the idea of centrality being thus
conveyed ; and 7 where an inverted triangle replaces the flower
and reveals some of the deeper meaning attached to this symbol.
In 1 and 3 the flower is surmounted by the hawk crowned with

851

I?ea.Tbod.y

Vol. I, No. 7, PI. VII.

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 417

the Ra sign which, as has already been stated, symbolizes circui-
tiou around a central point of fixity. The names for hawk z= hak
((/. ak and cabal ;= middle, also hak = king) and her or bur (cf.
hru = upper, the above, and nr — four = Horus) reveal its appro
priate use as rebus and symbol of the central "sum" god. In
8, instead of the Ra sign, the hawk wears the peculiar double
diadem with a circle at its base, which is the particular attribute of
the images of the ram-headed god Amon who is represented in no.
12, holding the aukh sign and accompanied by the kbeper sign,,
composed of a circle, surmounted by a cone and supported by a
pedestal. It is well known that the ram = ser, sart or sar, was the
form under which the supreme divinity was worshipped at Thebes,
the real metropolis of the whole land of Egypt, during many cen
turies.1 The name Amon, also given as Ammou, Amoun, Mammon,
resembles Amen closely enough to justify the identification of
Amon as a form of Amen-Ra, the concealed god.

In this connection it is noteworthy that the ram = sar or sart
conveys the same sound as the goose = sar or sa, the employ
ment of which, as a pole-star symbol, will be discussed further on,
and that the king of Egypt was termed " the living ram (of Amon)
on earth " and '• the engendering ram." From Mr. J. P. Mahaffy
we learn that, under the Ptolemaic rule, " it seems likely that among
the strict prescriptions for all the solemn acts of the king, it was
directed that he should assume the insignia of the god Amon, bis
ram's horns, fleece, etc , when visiting the queen" (History of Egypt,
London, 1899*).

Under the Ptolemaic dynasty, the identification of Amon with
Amen-Ra receives support from the magnificent monumental votive
ram, preserved at the Berlin Museum, which was dedicated by king
Ameuophis III, which bears on his head, the disk with the uraus
serpent, the familiar sign of the '• hidden god."2

1 It is remarkable that the sound of the Latin word for ram = aries, so closely re
sembles the Egyptian symbols for Amen-Ra (nee fig. 63, 1-4) and that the am and ar
syllables occur in the following names for ram or sheep, applied to the zodiacal con
stellation

Al Hamal = the sheep (Arabic). Bara =the ram (Persian).

Amru = the rain (Syrian). Varak = " " (Parsi).

2 The inscription on this monument, which also exhibits the portrait statue of
Amenophis III, is of particular interest as it states that the temple of Saleb, built by
the king, was " very wide and large .... its towers reached to the sky, and the flag-
staffs united thanselres icith the stars of Jienrcn" (see official catalogue of the Berlin
Museum, p. V22). This appears to indicate that the flagstaifs were employed for pur
poses of astronomical observations.

853

418 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

While the diadem of Ameii-Ra sufficiently identifies the hawk
on the lotus as a form of the '' hidden god," the following extracts
from Mr. Goodyear's work will be found to confirm this and throw
further light on the subject. " The hawk represented Ra, Horns
and all solar gods . . . ." A text at Deuderah says: " The sun
which was from the beginning rises (i. e. comes forth, appears,
see Brugsch for meaning of Egyptian equivalent) like a hawk from
the midst of its lotus bud ..." At Denderah the king makes offer
ing of the lotus to the sun-god Horns with the words : u I offer thee
the flower which was in the beginning the glorious lily of the great
water . . . ." In the boat of the dead the soul says, " I am a pure
lotus (i. e. life) issue of the field of the sun."

The circumstance that, in 4, the flower is surmounted by a goose,
one name for which being aq = ak, shows that, like the hawk,
bak, it may well have served as a rebus for ak = the middle. An
instance of the direct association of the sacred goose with the
four quarters is given in the bas-relief at Medinet-Abu, described
by Brugsch (op. cit. n, p. 297). This represents " Ramses III . . .
offering sacrifice to the god ' Khimti,' i. e. Pan of Panopolis, the
Theban form of which was Amon Generator .... A white bull
(the symbol of Pan) and four geese, which are represented as
flying towards the cardinal points, constitute the sacrifice."

The striking association of the goose with the bull — Apis, the
astronomical symbolism of which has been shown, gains in signif
icance when it is realized that another name for goose is apt and
that this also constitutes an anagram of pta — ptah, one form of
Amen-Ra. It is a curious fact that the third name for goose, se
or sa, combined with ankh — flower, as in pi. vn, 4, furnishes the
word aukh-sa, which recalls the word An-sah obtained bv the
mummy and serpent rebus and the name of the god of Assyria,
Anshar.

In connection with the above Egyptian rebus, expressing the
syllables ankh and sa, it surprised me, to find that the Sanscrit
name for goose is hangsa, while in ancient Hindu it is hamsa and
in modern Hindu hanassa. It is well known that in Hindu my
thology the goose was ;< the bird of Brahma," the " supreme one who
alone exists really and absolutely," that the birth of Brahma from
the lotus is frequently represented in Hindu religious art, and that
the lotus is the attribute of the " sun-god " Surya, termed the "lord
of the lotus, father, friend and king." What is more, the goose,
854

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 419

associated with " solar " symbolism, i. e. with the circle and cen
tral dot, with the swastika, foiir-petalled flower and the wheel, oc
curs on the oldest monuments of Greek art ; on the prehistoric
bronzes and pottery of Italy (where the sacred geese were kept on
the Capitoline at Rome) ; on the bronzes of Hallstatt, of ancient
Gaul and of prehistoric Sweden. Pointing out that we thus obtain
a whole chain of associations which link the syllables am and an
to deities and pole-star symbolism, I next present, for reference,
the names for the bird given in Webster's dictionary.

Sanscrit, hangsa ; Latin, anser, for hanser ; German, gans (in
Germany, according to Pliny, the small, white geese were called
ganzoe al. gantoe lib. x, 22); Greek, khen ; Danish, gaas ;
Swedish, gos ; Welsh, gwydd ; Anglo-Saxon, gos ; Irish, geadh ;
Icelandic, gas; Slavonic, gusj and gonsj. Noting that in the San
scrit, Latin, Greek and German alike, the syllable an or en is present
in the name for goose, I return to the Egyptian symbols which
express the words an and ankh, and, bearing the u birth of Brah
ma from a lotus" in mind, refer again to the Egyptian title Neb-
ankh, " lord of life," which, as I point out, also signified "the
lord of the lotus flower." Let us now briefly examine some Egyp
tian texts relating to pi. v, 12 and 15, which represent the boat
(am and its synonyms) and the flower = ankh, associated with the
boy and the serpent.

In an astronomical text from Edfu, published by Brugsch,
New Year's day is mentioned in connection with the "coming forth
of the great lotus blossom in the form of a bud in its symbolical
interpretation as the god ahi (literally, boy) . . . The count of
his rulership begins from the first day of his rising or birth . . . ."
In another text it is said : " New Year's day, the sun (Ra) comes
forth from a lotus flower in the great sea," and there are numerous
allusions in other inscriptions to "• the lotus blossom in the great
waters, from which the sun-child arises in radiance towards
heaven." The text accompanying (pi. v, 15), where a serpent
rises from the lotus in the boat, states "the sun, uniter of the
world, in Tentyra " — the New Year.

In another inscription it is said : u tliou risest like the sacred
serpent, as a living spirit, in thy glorious form in the bark of the
sunrise ;" and this passage forms an interesting parallel to that
already cited where the sun is said to rise " like a hawk from the
midst of its lotus bud." PI. vn, 14, exhibits a nine-petalled lotus

855

420 KEY-NOTK OF ANCIENT

growing from n pedestal and a head issuing froin it. As the name
for head tep (also tap or tpa, and apt cf. pta), signifies chief, or
beginning, we must accept this as another variant of the previous
signs.

Deferring the discussion of the so-called ;t birth " and ctllt of
the diurnal sun, as one form of Amen-Ra, let us now rapidly sur
vey the following figures copied from Mr. Goody ear's work.

PI. vii, 9. A circle encloses a group consisting of the five-petalled
lotus between two buds and the hawk-headed sphinx, which has
already been met with in the astronomical texts and, according to
Egyptologists, represents Horns, the sun, kt who lights the world
with two eyes" and is addressed as kt a powerful lion," "the master
of double force."1 I need scarcely recall here that the combi
nation of a bird and quadruped would naturally symbolize air and
earth, the Above and Below and that the hawk-headed sphinx,
seated on four petals, clearly expresses the idea of the " lord of
Heaven and Earth, the father and mother of all, the ruler of the
Four Quarters and lord of the circle."

PL vn, 10. The plain circle or disk, supported by two uplifted
arms = ka, arising from (akh) the ankh sign, is another ingenious
mode of expressing the idea of the Middle, the circle, duality and
life.

No. 13 constitutes as charming and ingenious a play upon the
word ankh = life as can be imagined, and a close examination re
veals its subtle, hidden and deep significance. It exhibits, in
the first case, the ankh sign combined with the flower ~ ankh,
which might, at a first glance, be taken as an example of purely
decorative art. But the ever-present thought of the duality of
nature manifests itself in the arrangement of the two flowers
towards each other and enclosed in the open ring of the ankh sign,
and it is evident that the artist took pains to draw the central
petal of the lower blossom in the form of a triangle, below which
an oblong square and a square may be distinguished.

After the foregoing attempt to show how, even with my rudi
mentary and limited knowledge of their language, the sacred
symbols of the Egyptians become intelligible and full of signifi-

JThe ideas associated with the form of a lion couchant are best learned from the
following passages from the Bible: " He couched, lie lay down as a lion and as a
great lion ; who shall stir him up?" (Numbers xxiv, 9, see also Genesis xlix, 9). It is
only by the light afforded by such insights into eastern contemporaneous thought that
the meaning of the Egyptian sphinx can be in some measure understood.

856

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 421

cance when studied as examples of pole-star symbolism and prim
itive rebus writing, I draw attention to the limited number of
syllables employed in the astronomical texts ; to the ingenuity dis
played in expressing the same sound over and over again by means
of different words possessing the same sound and to the fact I shall
hereafter set forth, that the syllables and rebus-figures employed
are found indissolubly linked to pole-star and sacred symbolism.
Referring a demonstration of these conclusions to the end of the
present investigation, I shall next discuss the forms which the cult
of the dualities of nature seemingly assumed in ancient Egypt.

As an introduction I present in fig. 70, the copy of the upper
portion of a funeral stela preserved at BiiLik and published by
Perrot and Chipiez (yEgypten, Leipzig, 1884). It exhibits the
head or face of Hathor surmounting the tet column and supporting,
in turn, the image of a small house or temple, at each side of which
is a peculiar projection recalling the circinate line issuing from the
red crown of lower Egypt (see fig. 70, 9, 10). In another Hathor
stela, figured in the same work (pp. 510 and 780), the same charac
teristic circinate projections recur. The image of the house, always
represented witli a single doorway, is obviously a rebus of the
name Hathor, explained by Egyptologists as Het-heru, literally
"the house of Horns." ;4Athor or Hathor of Thebes, identified with
Nut, the sky .... was the female power of nature and is often
represented under the form of a cow, .... as a woman with a
cow's head, with horns and the disk, or wearing a head-dress in the
shape of a vulture and above it the disk and horns." In the famil
iar representation of the mask of Hathor on columns, the asso
ciation with the cow is conveyed by large cow's ears =. set-em,
projecting at each side of the face = lira.

A feature generally present in the miniature doorway of the
house, is a single erect head of a uraeus, bearing the disk or circle
on its head and usually exhibiting a distinctly cross-shaped mark on
its neck. The latter peculiarity is clearly shown in fig. 70, 1, which
exhibits moreover a seated divinity at each side of the doorway
each bearing the throne or seat (auset) on its head, and the ankh
sign on its knee. Close examination reveals that one of these dei
ties is Ausar= Osiris, whose name is generally written by means of
the throne = auset, and the eye = an, with or without the deter
minative for god, ?'. e*, the seated figure (fig. 70, 1 a and 1 b) . Oppo
site to Osiris is Auset == Isis, whose name is usually written as in

857

422

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

fig. 70, 1 c, where the auset, the egg = se, and the seated image of
a goddess bearing a bowl = neb, on her head, may be distinguished..

FIG. 70.

Aii idea of the import of tig. 70, 1, seems gained when it is re
membered that in Egyptian the word house = pi, pir or per, was
858

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 423

associated with the title of ruler, the name Pharaoh being derived
from per •=. aa == great house. What is more, the word house =
pir or pi, is used in astronomical texts, like the Arabian beth, in re
lation to stars, it being said of a star that " it ever conies forth
from its house" = appears (Brugsch).

The permanent image of the disk and serpent, a form of the
Ra sign, in the doorway of the sculptured house, would thus con
vey the idea of the eternal presence of Amen-Ra, the pole-star
god. The accentuation of the cross lines on the neck of the ara
indicates, moreover, the intentional allusion to four-fold and two
fold force, the latter being expressed by the eyes of the serpent.
The door = ptah, which is open, expresses the name Ptah = the
Opener, well known as that of the *' father of the gods" and a
form of Amen-Ra.

The positions assigned to Osiris and Isis, at either side of the
" hidden god." sufficiently shows that they were intended to repre
sent separate incorporations of the male and female principles
which were united in Amen-Ra, the "divine Twain." The associa
tion of both deities with the throne, the eternal seat of repose, iden
tifies both alike with Polaris. A monument in the Berlin Museum
(no. 261) which was found in the temple of Isis at Ben-naga, ill
Nubia, and was a votive offering made by the Ethiopian king Ne-
tek-Amen and his consort Amen-Tari, contains the following
formula, translated by Lepsius, which associates Isis with eternal
enthronement. " Thou remainest, thou remainest, on thy great
throne, O Isis, queen of Au-ker, like the sun (Ra) that lives in
the horizon .... and thou lettest thy son Netek-Amen flourish on
his throne . . . ."

The fact I am about to demonstrate, that the king and queen of
Egypt were the respective, k'the living images" of Osiris and Isis,
proves that, as in ancient Peru and China, the sovereigns, who were
at the same time high priest and priestess, were considered as
the sacred embodiments of the dual principles of nature. As else
where also, a chain of associations became attached to each of the
dualities ; but in Egypt, as may be clearly discerned, during the
lapse of centuries great transformations of thought took place and
alternately the male and female elements seem to have been asso
ciated with the cults of heaven and earth, light and darkness, sun
or moon, morning or evening stars, the southeast and the north
west.

424 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Iii the sacred writings the sun is usually termed " the right eye "
and the moon " the left eye " of Rn (cf. hra = the (divine) face).
Brugsch points out that, in certain inscriptions at Denderah trans
lated by Mariette, u the Sothis star of Hathor-Isis is designated as
4 the right eye of Ra' while the sun is termed the left eye."

Brugsch states, moreover, that, according to Sextus Empiricus,
" the Egyptians compared the king to the ' right eye ' or the sun ;
while the queen was compared to the ' left eye ' or the moon."
The two eyes, often with the designation of "right" or "left,"
constitute a favorite decoration on funeral stelae. In some in
stances the image of the solar disk, with one wing and one serpent
only, is figured as a substitute for the right eye (op. eft. n, 436,
see fig. 62, 6). The established fact that the eyes of Ra were the
equivalents of the uraei usually accompanying the circle of Ra,
the so-called u solar disk," is further explained by the following
data.

It is well known that the two uraei on the royal diadem denote
sovereignty over Upper and Lower Egypt. In the bas-relief pub
lished by Brugsch, the circle or Ra-sign is represented with two
uraei, which respectively wear the crowns of Upper and Lower
Egypt (fig. 70, 7). The crowned ura?i recur in the emblems of
Upper and Lower Egypt published by Mr. Goodyear, the first ac
companied by the lotus flower and the second by what Egyptolo
gists usually identify as the papyrus, but which appears to be the
ripened pod of the lotus (fig. 70, (J and 10). While the two uraei
thus emblematized the two divisions of the land of Egypt they are
found as distinctly associated with Osiris and Isis, and their living
images the king and queen, or the high priest and high priestess
of Amen-Ra. The Berlin Museum contains several representa
tions of Isis under the form of a serpent with a woman's head
(see official catalogue, nos. 7740, 870 and 2529). Osiris is also
represented as a serpent with the head of a bearded man.

A small shrine in the form of a temple, and decorated with royal
serpents, is preserved at the Berlin Museum (catalogue no. 8164)
and contains the effigies of two uraei, one of which, to the left
of the spectator, exhibits the head of Isis, the second, to the right,
the features of Osiris. Between them stands the vase or bowl
which was a constant feature of Isis cult.

In connection with this monument it is interesting to examine
an inscription published ni<jjsch (i. p. 108) in which occur two

8GO

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 425

serpents who are pouring liquid into a bowl placed between them
and the divided halves of the sky-sign (fig. 70, 8). The text
connects this with the New Year festival when the Nile began to
rise '• from its two sources " and the k' union of heaven and earth"
took place, which will be discussed later. The following tempo
rary list briefly presents a summary of the preceding data which is
rendered more complete by the addition of the signs and emblems of
the festivals, when the " conjunction of sun and moon took place,"
figured by the picture of two persons united by their respective
right and left hands (fig. 70, 5) or by the tet column placed between
two horns (fig. 70. 4). As may be seen by numerous examples in
Brugsch (vol. n), the great Sed festival is figured by the image
of the small sanctuary which existed on the flat roof of the great
temple at Denderah, and resembled an open pavilion with four
columns which is usually represented as containing two seats
placed back to back (fig. 70, 2, 3). A small picture in Mr. Wallis
Budge's Nile exhibits the king and queen occupying such a double
throne, respectively, wearing the insignia and crowns of Osiris and
Isis and holding their sceptres, as in the representations of the
ceremony of laying the foundation of a temple, in their right and
left hands (fig. 70, 6). The resume of the preceding material
produces the following list :

Right eye of Ra Left eye of Ra.

Sun Moon.

King Queen.

Osiris Isis.

High priest High priestess.

Right hand sceptre Left hand sceptre.

North South.

Red crown White crown.

The following data, gleaned from the valuable works of Prof.
A. H. Sayce and the serial History of Egypt, written by Prof.
Flinders Petrie, J. P. Mahaffy and J. G. Milne, furnish strong
indications that, in the remotest past, the two divisions of the land
of Egypt were respectively governed by a male and female sover
eign ; a proof that, before the time of Menes, the ancient empire
had become disintegrated, and undergone a long period of intense
strife and warfare. We learn from Professor Sayce of the proba
bility that " the city of Nek-hen was once the capital of the south
and that the vulture, the symbol of the south, was also the emblem

861

426

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

of Nekheb, the goddess of the great fortress, the ruins of which
lie opposite to Nekhen on the eastern bank of the Nile " (Sayce,
op. cit. pp. 152, 191).

While the capital and the emblem of southern or Upper Egypt are
thus directly associated with a " goddess," further data show us
that the ancient queens of Egypt were termed u god- women or god
desses." When the New Empire was founded (1GOO-1100 B. C.)
with its capital at Thebes, king Ahmes assumed the sovereignty of
the whole of Egypt, but seems to ljuive shared supreme authority
with his consort Ah-mes-nefret ere — divine- or god-woman, also
termed u the high priestess of Amen." From the honors accorded
to her and to her son Amen-hetep or Amenophis I, it must indeed
be inferred that she possessed some inherited sovereign right to
one of the ancient divisions of the empire.

During the period of the 26th dynasty, of Sais, we find Upper
Egypt governed by a "god-woman," Shep-en-upet, who remained
in power, even after the land had been conquered by Psammeti-
chus I. The latter obtained, however, that his daughter Nitocris
was adopted as the successor to the " divine- woman " ruler of
Thebes, and she in turn adopted the daughter of Psarnmetichus II
(B. C. 594-589), whose name was Anches-nefer-eb-re. A tablet
from the temple of Karnak, preserved at the Berlin Museum (cat
alogue no. 2112) represents this female sovereign of Thebes ac
companied by her prime minister, and standing in the presence of
the gods Amen and Chon.

Another remarkable monument at the Berlin Museum (no. 7972)
figures the ' ' god-woman " Shep-en-upet, under the form of a
sphinx holding a vase, and records that she had inherited the sover
eignty of Thebes from her aunt, the consort of an Ethiopian king.
An extremely interesting proof that the beard, per .se, constituted an
emblem of sovereignty, is furnished by a beautiful portrait statue
of the "divine woman," Hat-shepset (Berlin Museum, no. 2299).
She is figured as a sphinx and wears a beard suspended from her
head-dress.1 The serpent decorates her diadem. On other monu
ments this remarkable queen, who built the temple of Der-el-Ba-
hari, is figured with the crown of Upper Egypt (cf. no. 2279, Ber
lin Museum). By good fortune the personal gold ornaments of a

*! address the query to Egyptologists: whether there are any indications of a com
mon identity of sound in the Egyptian word for beard and same name, denoting rule
or power, similar to that existing iii the Maya language between " ah-meex "ass
bearded man and " ah-mek-tan " governor, ruler (see p. 232).

862

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 427

4 ' divine woman," an Ethiopian princess, were discovered by Ferlini
in the pyramid of Begerauie, enclosed in a plain bronze vase.
These precious objects are now exhibited in the Berlin Museum,
where I have examined them and noted with interest that the cen
tral ornament of two finely worked, broad gold bracelets, is a fe
male figure with the royal diadem and four outstretched arms, to
which wings are attached. This furnishes us with an instance of
SL queen being represented with four wings, in exactly the same
manner as the Assyrian king Sargon, on the seal from the time of
Sennacherib (fig. 65, 6), namely, as a " ruler of the four quarters,"
which indicates that she held the position of a ki central ruler."
As might be expected in the case of a queen who personified Isis,
frequently represented under the form of a " woman-serpent," the
urseus is a favorite motif on other gold ornaments belonging to
the Ethiopian queen.

Certain passages in Prof. Flinders Petrie's History of Egypt
afford a curious insight into the prerogatives of Egyptian queens
as far back as about B. C. 2684. The consort of Usertesen II, the
fourth king of the twelfth dynasty was named Nefert, of whom a grey
granite statue is preserved at the Ghizeh Museum and represents
her as seated on a throne. On this are the titles " The hereditary
princess, the great favorite, the greatly praised, the beloved con
sort of the king, the ruler of all ivomen, the king's daughter of
his body, Nefert." Prof, Flinders Petrie adds : " The title ruler
or princess of all women is peculiar, and suggests that the queen
had some prerogatives of government as regards the female half
of the population." The title in question reappears four centuries
later in connection with Nubkhas, the queen of Sebek =: Emsaup,
of the 13th dynasty and her stele in the Louvre entitles her the
* 'great heiress, the greatly favored, the ruler of all women, the
great royal wife, united to the crown Nub-kha-s " (op. cit., vol.
i, pp. 175 and 225).

Between B. C. 1423-1414 queen Mutemua-arat appears as "• the
goddess queen " and "great royal wife " (Flinders Petrie op. cit., n,
p. 174). The consort of Amenhotep III (B.C. 1414-1379) the
celebrated Tyi, the daughter of Yuaa and Thuaa, is entitled
'* princess of both lands," and " chief heiress, princess of all
lands." Her successor Nefertiti is called u princess of south and
north, lady of both lands," which titles, as Prof. Flinders Petrie
comments, " like the titles of Tyi, imply a hereditary right to

8G3

428

KEY- NOTE OF ANCIENT

rule Egypt." They undoubtedly place her on a footing of equality
with the king, which is, however, comprehensible when it is ex
plained that she was the ruler of all women, while he was the ruler
of all men. The position of the Egyptian queen would thus prove
to have been analogous to that of the ancient Mexican Quilaztli
(see pp. 61-07).

The analogy is all the more striking when it is realized that the
titles of the Mexican chief tainess were : k> the Woman warrior,
the Woman of the Underworld or I^elow, the Woman serpent or
female twin and the Eagle woman," while the emblem of the Egyp
tian goddess-queen of the south was the vulture and she was the

personification of Isis, represented under the form of a serpent,
the twin of the male serpent, Osiris.

Much food for thought is furnished by a Syrian relief sculpture
from Amrit (published by Spamer, see fig. 71, 2), which exhibits
a vulture or eagle with outstretched wings, in juxtaposition to a
winged disk which appears to combine features of the Assyrian
winged disk (the bird's tail and two appendages, see fig. 71, 1)
with the two unvi of the Egyptian form (fig. 71, 3). It is strik
ing how clear the symbolism of the latter becomes when interpreted
( 1) as the symbol of the hidden god and his male and female form,
Osiris and Isis, accompanied by the wings symbolizing air and the
8(54

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 429

idea that the deity was invisible and immaterial ; (2) as the symbol
of Egypt itself — an entity, a complete circle, divided into two
parts, under two rulers. The pair of antelope horns above empha
size the fact that the twain were as a single pair. The combined
crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, the latter exhibiting a serpent's
head and the first, what appears to be its tail, constitute the symbol
of joint rulership which, in this case, is accompanied by the feather,
the rebus expressing the words ''truth and justice."

While the Syrian bas-relief conveys the idea of two separate
kingdoms, one conveying the idea of single rnlership, by the
form of an eagle ; the other of dual rulership, by the two uraei,
each of which is crowned by a small disk ; the Egyptian symbol
distinctly conveys the idea of a close union of two distinct parts.
The historical fact that Menes succeeded in uniting both lands
under a single crown, indicates clearly enough that the ancient
empire had become disintegrated and that by marrying the female
ruler of the south he had reinstated the dual government on its
original primitive basis. That, during the period of separation
and independence, a powerful gyueocracy had been formed seems
more than probable. Just as evidences are met with in ancient
Mexico of the existence of female communities, so the Old World
furnishes accounts, deemed fabulous, of powerful gyneocracies.
Thus we have heard of the Amazons, the fabulous race of women
warriors who are supposed to have founded a powerful empire on
the coast of the Euxine.

A searching analysis of the texts translated by Brugsch, relat
ing to the ceremonies performed at the New Year and famous Sed
festivals, as well as historical facts gleaned from the works of
living authorities, throw alight upon the position and sacred duties
of the Egyptian queens during many centuries. The critical ex
amination of a number of inscriptions, translated by Brugsch, is
found to show that the queen was the high priestess and living
image of Hathor-Isis and the personification of the female prin
ciple of nature, associated in Egypt with the nocturnal Heaven and
the Above, and their symbols, the bird or vulture, the cow, the
female serpent, the moon, the stars, and in particular Sirius-Sothis.
In remotest historical times the goddess-queen seems to have re
sided in her own capital, a fortress. The universal necessity to
insure the safety of women and children in times of warfare may
well have originally led to the assignment of a separate, permanent
P.M. PAPERS i 55 865

430 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

place of residence, to the female portion of the population. The
New Year festival, which coincided with the heliacal rising of Si-
rins (*20th July, Jul. Cal.) and the overflow of the Nile, which
suspended outdoor activity, was generally celebrated throughout
the land as the " union of heaven and earth," or the conjunction
of '• the sun and the moon, or Sirius."

It was customary that, at this period, the queen, personifying the
Sothis star, should come forth from her retirement and, surrounded
by pomp and majesty, meet the king in solemn state, publicly
occupy her place on the double throne, and share in the perform
ance of sacred religious rites. It is easy to see that the idea un
derlying the entire ceremonial was the harmonizing of the actions
of the sacred personifications of the dual principles of nature with
the natural phenomena, from which arose a strange confusion of
ideas concerning the relationship between these consecrated indi
viduals and the powers of nature, which culminated in the artifi
cial belief that they were divinely appointed mediators between
humanity and the supreme power.

There are clear indications that the consecrated nuptials of king
and queen marked the Sed festival which was celebrated, at the be
ginning of every fourth year, at Deuderah. Brugsch tells us that
the place on the roof of the Hathor temple, where the celebration
of the Sed festival took place, is specially designated as "the place
of the first feast " and in many cases this is shown to have been
the small open temple, whose roof is supported by four columns
(fig. 70, 2 and 3) . In one passage it is expressly stated that
"she, Isis-Sothis, consorts with her father, the sun, at 'the place
of the first feast,' " represented by a picture of the said temple
(fig. 70, 6).

It is interesting to compare the following passage with the suc
cessive one, as they exhibit different phases of religious cult. "In
solemn procession statues of the god Ra and of Hathor-Isis
(Sothis-Sirius) were carried up the stairs from the interior of the
temple to its roof (the tep-hat or head of the house) where, under
the open sky or in the small open temple on the roof designated
as Hait at Denderah, the idols were unveiled at a given time . . . ."
"On the morn of the New Year Isis-Sothis 'beheld her father
on the beautiful day of the birth of the disk ' (mas-aten) or
'the birth of the sun' (mas-ra) ." It is described how " the goddess
was led upon the roof so that she might behold the rays of her
866

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 43

father on his rising .... She is sometimes addressed directly,
being told k that thou shonldst see thy father on the day of the
New Year.' ' In other texts allusion is made to the approach of
Sirius to the sun on New Year's day : " her rays join (heter) with
those of the radiant god on that beautiful day of the birth of the
sun's disk in the morning of New Year's day :" or "thou consortest
with thy father Ra in thy open temple, thy beautiful face being
turned towards the south;" and elsewhere, "she comes on her
beautiful festival of the New Year, to unite her greatness in heaven
with that of her father ; the gods are festive and the goddesses are
full of joy when the right eye (Sirius) unites itself with the left
eye (the sun). She rests upon her throne in the place where the
disk of the sun can be seen and the radiant one (Isis-Sothis) com
bines herself with the radiant one (the sun)."

On one of the columns of the roof-temple at Denderah, the fol
lowing text is inscribed: "This temple of Rekhit flourishes in
possession of a lion (mahes) and of his daughter ... of the
Horns of the east and of the goddess Khont abut. They assume her
heavenly form on New Year's day and each one consorts with his
neighbor." Preceding inscriptions are made more clear by the fol
lowing detached passages translated by Brugsch, which merit careful
study. " An inscription at Abydos makes the goddess Safkhet
say to the king : ' thou didst appear as king upon thy throne on
the feast hib-seb ; like the god Ra at the beginning of the year.' '
" The high-priest of Ptah at Memphis was charged with the cele
bration of the Sed festival, which was a general festival through
out the land." " The annual going of the Hathor of Denderah to
Edfu took place in the month Epiphi." u The goddess Hathor-Isis
of Deuderah is frequently called the second female sun next to
the sun's disk, the many colored, feathered goddess, and is identi
fied with Isis-Sothis."

According to an extremely ancient belief it was the goddess
Hathor Isis-Sothis who caused the inundation of the Nile which,
according to the inscriptions, coincided with the heliacal rising of
Sirius. Owing to this circumstance she is called, " Isis the great,
the mother of god, who causes the Nile to overflow when she shines
at the commencement of the year," or " the female sun. who ap
pears at the beginning of the year in the heaven as the divine
Sothis star, the queen of the decan stars, whose rays illuminate the
earth like those of the sun which appears in the morning. She is

867

432 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the mistress of the commencement of the year, who draws the
Nile out of its source and thus confers life upon living human be
ings." Elsewhere she is termed "• the mistress of the commence
ment of the year, who makes the Nile rise at its period." It is
likewise said of her '" on her beautiful feast of beholding her father,
the heaven unites itself with the earth and the right eye unites it
self with the left eye, at the beginning of the year." She is de
scribed as Isis the great, the mother of god, the lady of Adut
in Anet, the mistress of the beginning of the year, the monarch
of the Sema? who appears on New Year's day to usher in the new
year. (She is) the goddess Ament (the hidden one) in Thebes,
Menat (the nurse) in Heliopolis, Renpit (i. e. the year) in Memphis,
the divine star Sothis in Elephantine, the radiant one in Apollino-
polis magna, etc.

In another passage Hathor-Isis is spoken of as "the goddess
Mehen-net of the light-god and his Ar-hatef =(she who acts as
pilot) in the boat sektet, which eternally passes through the heaven
over the head of her father." On the north wall of the Prondos of
the Denderah temple Isis-Hathor is called '; Hathor, the lady of
Anet ; Isis herself ; the eye of Ra ; the great one of Tentyra ; the
lady of heaven ; the queen of gods and goddesses ; the great Mat
. . . the female sun ; the first in Tentyra ; the true one amongst
gods ; the young ; the daughter of a young . . [ ?] the beauty who
appears in heaven; the truth which regulates the world at the prow
of the bark of the sun ; the queen and mistress of awe ; the mistress
of goddesses, Isis, the great, the mother of the god."

The following texts from Brugsch are explicit enough : " The
temple of Tentyra is fitted up for a bride, and is occupied by a
bride." " The temple of Tentyra is in bridal array and contains
a bride on the beautiful festival of the birth of the sun." "The
temple of Tentyra is fitted up for a bridal and is in possession of
a bride on her beautiful festival of the birth of the sun (mas-ra)."

The birth of a male or female Horns, of a young sun or moon,
is alluded to in other texts as the " feast of the child in its cradle,"
and coincided with New Year's day. According to Brugsch, the
festival of the child in its ses = cradle, nest, or couch, undoubtedly
coincided with New Year's day, as is proven by the following in
scription : "The bringing of the band of stuff to the great Isis,
the mother of the god, for the obtainment- of a happy year. Re
ceive, receive happy years on the day of the night of the child in
868

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 433

its cradle !" It is usual to interpret the birth of the

young child, or suu of the New Year as a mere allegory of the
astronomical fact and it may have been thus in later times. On
the other hand, historical data prove that the actual birth of a
'•child," the offspring of a royal sacramental marriage, did take
place in the temple and that children, thus born, afterwards became
the rulers of Egypt.

"At Luqsor, ... a great temple was built by Amenbotep III
(B. C. 1414-1379) to ' his father Amen,' with special reference to

the divine conception of the king His birth is the great

subject of the temple . . . and his mother Mut-em-ua is the prom
inent figure in those scenes, pointing to her being important as
queen-mother . . . ." Of the later king Hor-em-heb (B. C. 1332-
1328) it is inscribed : " Amen, king of the gods, dandled him . . .
when he came forth from the womb he was enveloped in reverence,
the aspect of a god was upon him ; the arm was bowed to him
as a child and great and small did obeisance before him " (Flinders
Petrie, op. cit. pp. 177, 190 and 248).

The small I sis temple to the east of the great temple of Hathor
at Denderah is specially designated as the lying-in chamber, or
sacred house of birth. An inscription dating from the Roman
period, on the outer eastern wall of this building reads: "Life!
the female Horns, the youthful, the daughter of a hak (regent,
Brugsch), Jsis, the great, the mother of the Ra — god, is born in
Tentyra in the ' night of the child in its cradle,' at the west side
of the temple of Hat-seses (the great temple of Hathor)." It is,
moreover, stated that " Horus, in female form, is the princess, the
powerful, the heiress to the throne and the daughter of an heir to
the throne."

In another inscription, on the south wall of the small temple of
Isis, the birth of Isis is described thus : " On this beautiful day,
'of the night of the child in its cradle,' on the great festival during
which the world is re-adjusted, or balanced (sekhek en ta) , the
bringing forth of Isis takes place in the interior or centre of Auet
(Tentyra) by the goddess Ap, the great, in the chamber of Ap,
in the form of a dark red female person, the Khnum ankh, the
lovely. Her mother, Nut, exclaimed at the sight of her : behold,
(As is) I have become a mother. Thence the origin of the name
Isis .... The south, towards the place of rising of the sun's

disk, has been given over to her, and the north, towards

8G9

434 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

She is, namely, the mistress of both sides of Egypt, with her eon
Horns and her brother Osiris."

On the east side of the wall of the terrace at Denderah a similar
inscription reads : " Uar-kher-ta is the name of this locality. The
name of the place of the cradle of I sis is named Aclut, which is the
house where the ' accouchement ' of Xut, the goddess of heaven,
takes place. It is here that, at the time of the ' night of the
child in its cradle,' the god-mother is brought into the world, in
the form of a dark female, named Khnum-ankhet, the lady of love
and the queen of the gods and goddesses. On seeing her, her
mother exclaimed : As, is i. e. lo, or behold, I have become a

mother ! Thence the origin of her name Isis She is the

lady of the temple of Egypt with her son Horus and brother
Osiris, now and forever into eternity." The most instructive ac
count of the festival which has come under my notice is the follow
ing, contained in another inscription in the temple at Denderah.

" The fourth day, supplementary to the year (of 360 days, i. e.
the 364th day) is the beautiful day of the ' night of the child in
its cradle ' and is a great festival of preparation. During the night
preceding this day there takes place the procession of the goddess
Hathor and the divinities with her. The circuit of her temple is
made and all is duly fulfilled according to the custom. Upon this
follows the return to their places (chambers in the temple) . The
golden one (Nubet, the ordinary appellation of Hathor-Isis as the
star Sothis-Sirius, Brugsch) rises, shining, above the brow of her
progenitor, and her mysterious (literally, full of secrets) form is at
the prow of the boat of the sun. As soon as she reaches the ak
(centre) of her city in the presence of her Noinos, she beholds her
dwelling with the most joyful feelings. When she enters her
house her body is full of delight. When she has taken possession
of her exalted dwelling, surrounded by her fellow-gods, who stand
at each side of her, her soul in her body is full of rejoicings. When
they join the rays of her father (the sun god) and are united to
the radiance of his disk, the city Anet (Tentyra) is happy. Ado
ration is made in Adut (the lying-in chamber) and Pi-auet is in
festive state, when it beholds the great, the powerful leader, she
who creates the festival in the holy city on that beautiful day of
the New Year."

Elsewhere we read : " The city of Anet is in a constant exaltation
when the goddess Isis is born in it (in the small Isis temple) in the
870

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 435

form of a dark red woman, whose name is Khnum-Ankhet, the
lady of love, the queen of goddesses and women, the bride. It is
beautiful to see the shining appearance of the ray of light in the
heaven, in the dusk, at the time when she is born in this city ....
A flying beetle (?) is born in the sky in the primeval city of Ten-
tyra at the period of 4 the night of the child in its cradle.' The
sun shines in the heaven at dusk when her birth has taken place.
Gods and goddesses praise the name of her majesty . . . ." " Ra-
Hur of Apollinopolis magna, god Sam-ta, comes forth, or arises, in
the dawn (akhekh) when the birth takes place in ' the night of the
child in its cradle,' on the great festival of the entire world (or the
entire land). He shines for her majesty when she has brought
forth (the child) . Her child is in the form of a beautiful boy,
who is the lord of Tentyra. The gods and goddesses came to her
carrying the symbol of life (the ankh) and the sceptre of power
(the tarn) so as to fulfil their desire and her wish " (p. 103).

The following extract from a papyrus which belonged to a priest
of Amon, named Horsiesis of Thebes, of the time of Augustus,
affords an extremely interesting insight of the mysterious cere
monial which had gradually developed. It is evident that the text,
though apparently clear, must have been intelligible to the ini
tiated only, who alone were able to understand the allusions to
secret, sacred rites and their symbolical meaning.

" Thou raisest thyself to heaven, in the region of the city Ka . . .
. . . thou goest with the king when he goes to Thebes .... thou
seest the Sktt bark on its arrival in the city of Thebes and the
two sisters united in Pi-ubkt .... thou seest the goddess Hathor
who becomes the mother of her own mother1 on the day . . of the
Tx festival .... thy name is called amongst those of the judges
on the great Hermopolis in the night of the festival of lie who re-

1 The somewhat perplexing allusions to the " divine marriage" of Isis to her father
or brother and to her giving birth to her own mother, as in the above text, are very
naturally explained by the fact that the successive officiating king-high-priest always
personified Ra-Osiris or the Sun and the queen Isis-Sothis-Ilathor and the Moon or
Sirius. The female child to whom the queen gives birth was destined to be her suc
cessor and another personification of Isis, therefore she could be said to have given
birth to her own mother, since, like the latter, the child would be an Isis. In the same
way the queen could be said to marry her father and brother, as, like herself, the king
was the offspring of a divine union and bore his father's title. In connection with
the custom of the male Ilorus naming the " young sun" and the female Ilorus the
young star or moon, it is noteworthy that the sou and daughter of Anthony and
Cleopatra, who used to assume the insignia of Isis on state occasions, were given the
Greek surnames of Helios and Selene.

871

436 KEY-NOTE OK ANCIENT

mains in the middle or centre of his city .... thou seest the im
movable ones united into a quattior, in form like a young bull
.... tbon seest their wives united together in the form of the

goddess Authat thou visitest the caves of Thebes when

his majesty betakes himself to the zone of Sinn .... The mis
tress of heaven comes to her house .... thou receivest a cloak
from his hand . . . the divine eye . . . thou watchest at night in
the chamber of birth on the day of the [lying in] birth of the
goddess Mut .... [Nut?] Thou 'goest in with those who go in
and comest out with those who come out like the great Horns in
his temple .... thou seest in her domain (?) mysterious actions
performed by the Pastophores. No one sees, no one hears (of
them) .... thou hearest the voice of the singer in the temple,
in varied modulations .... thou ascendest the stairway of the
eternal circle of light, thou seest the strong ram in its domain . . .
thou seest ... in his first form, Osiris, in the house of purification.'

. . . (Brugsch, op. clt. ii, pp. 518 and 520).

A careful perusal of the preceding texts conveys an idea of the
immense lapse of time it must have required for the state religion
of Egypt to have developed itself and crystallized into a compli
cated ritual, the true significance of which, doubtlessly, gradually
receded from view. The naive primitive symbolization of the union
of heaven and earth by the actual marriage of king and queen,
followed by general marriage festivities, had naturally created,
in course of time, a distinct privileged caste rendered " divine "
by the circumstances attending their conception and birth. Once
in existence the maintenance and insurance of the divine line of
descent would naturally enforce the intermarriage of its members
and the sequestration and guarded seclusion of the royal women
and the virgin priestesses from whose ranks the destined mothers
of the divine children were selected.

A more ancient form of symbolizing the union of heaven and
earth seems to have been the cult of Apis, which, according to
Maspero, preceded the building of the pyramids and could scarcely
have arisen before the adoption of the cow or bull, ua, as the rebus
of Polaris, the One= ua. A survival of Apis cult seems to be the
allegorical sacred title "bull" (Osiris-Apis) bestowed upon the
king, of " cow" upon the queen and " calf" upon their offspring,
the young Horns. In later times the king was entitled " the ram "
and wore his fleece and horns on visiting the queen. As a natural

872

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 437

sequence, the fruit of their union was spoken of as " the lamb."
According to Hero lotus (n, pp. 27-29, Gary's translation), '"the
sacred Apis, or Epaphus is the calf of a cow incapable of con
ceiving another offspring; and the Egyptians say that lightning
descends upon the cow from heaven and that from thence it brings
forth Apis." " The Egyptian magistrates said . . . the god [in the
form of Apis] manifested himself at distant intervals . . . and
when this manifestation took place the Egyptians immediately put
on their richest apparel and kept festive holiday."

As stated by Mr. Wallis Budge, Apis worship was established
at Memphis by Ka-kau, the second king of the second dynasty
B.C. 4100. The veneration accorded to the bull, cow and calf,
as embodiments of the dual principles of nature, in separate and in
single form, seems to have been accorded in other localities to
different animal forms and to have been replaced, in later times,
by triads, composed of a god, goddess and their offspring, each
great centre ultimately possessing their particular triad, the living
images of which were the high-priest, high-priestess and their
" divine " offspring. It should be noted that a group consisting
of 8+1= nine gods, high priests or prophets, accompanied the
triad, the result being twelve " deities " in all, of which one — the
child, was an embodiment of two principles and was the ka =
the divine twain.

The transition of Apis worship from the animal to the human
form was accomplished during the reign of the Ptolemies (B. C.
305-42) when Serapis or Osiris- Apis was introduced into Egypt
and represented as a man with the head of a bull, wearing a disk
and uraeus. Long before this, however, androsphinxes and other
combinations of the human and animal form had existed in Egypt.
At Thebes the divine triad was formed by Amen-Ra, Mut-IIathor
and Chonsu ; at Edfu and Denderah we find Osiris, Isis-Sothis-
Hathor and Horns. On the other hand, a curious inscription in
the temple at Denderah, translated by Brugsch (u, p. 512), act
ually describes Amen-Ra as " the great god in Denderah, who
periodically rejuvenates himself and becomes a beautiful boy, wlio
is the concealed or hidden god, ivhose name is hidden; who is the
Horns with colored wings, coming forth in the upper hemisphere
of Edfu, the lord of the double heaven."

The inference one might be tempted to make from this and
other texts is that, at one period, a human babe, the fruit of a

873

438 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

royal or sacerdotal union, was born in the temple on what consti
tuted New Year's Day and was secretly worshipped there during
the ensuing year, as the living image of Amen-Ra, the hidden god
and " divine twain." I venture to point out that the adoption of
the child as the image of the divinity was the logical sequence to
the preceding employment of the bull as a rebus for the words
ua = one and ka = twain ; that the consecration of the human
form must, undoubtedly, have given a strong impulse to statuary,
and that the sanctification of the child correspondingly exalted
motherhood and lent a particular consecration to the marriage of
its " divine parents." The following facts, culled at random,
afford a limit of the transitions and further developments which
took place in Egypt in course of time.

Before proceeding, special mention must be made of one import
ant point which throws a flood of light upon the extent of the de
velopment of separate cults of sun and moon and the institution of
solar and lunar calendars which respectively governed the activities
of the male and female populations. As this matter will be fully
treated in my calendar monograph I shall merely note here that
Brugsch cites texts proving the existence and simultaneous use of
the two calendars, and the supreme importance accorded to the
new moon of the month Epiphi on whose appearance the " goddess
Isis-Hathor of Denderah embarked on her sacred barge and pro
ceeded up the river, from her city to Edfu (Apollinopolis magna)
where she joined his majesty . . ., her father, . . . the incompar
able sun-god Ra, the first of Apollinopolis, the golden disk, whose
children are numerous . . . ." It is further stated that the god and
goddess became inseparable like sun and moon. Brugsch states
that the appearance of the said new moon, which was also associa
ted with the heliacal rising of Sirius, would range from Aug. 18 to
Sept. 16, Jul. Cal. (see op. cit. u, pp. 282— i). The appearance
of the goddess was the signal for the opening of a season of gen
eral "feasting and drinking, rejoicing, singing and dancing"
throughout the land, to which the name Tekhu is given in some
texts. This is translated by Brugsch as "the intoxication of glad
ness or joy ;" it " coincided with the highest level attained by the
overflow of the Nile, "and its modern survival is the annual u mar
riage of the Nile " which takes place on the 23d of August.

It is curious to note how the original carrying out of primitive
and nai've rites by the queen and high-priestess gradually caused
874

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 43'.)

her presence to be regarded as essential for the " drawing out of
the Xile from its source " and her person to be surrounded with
utmost veneration and sanctity. As Prof. Flinders Petrie states,
speaking of as far back as B. C. 1383-13G5 : "The marriage to a
royal high priestess of Amen was, of course, purely a political
necessity to legitimate the king's position."

14 It would seem that Hor-em-heb was not married to Nezem-
mut until his accession, when he legalized his position by becoming
husband of the high-priestess of Amen, as in the arrangement of
the later dynasties. This marriage was an affair of politics solely,
considering the age of the parties ; Horemheb was probably be
tween fifty and sixty at the time and if the queen was the same
as Nefertiti's sister Nezem-mut, she must have been about the
same age as Horemheb (op. cit. pp. 183, 250). How long the
female Egyptian ruler maintained her sway may, perhaps, best be
seen by the following texts describing the political homage paid to
the living goddess of the Egyptians under Ptolemaic and Roman
rules.

One inscription clearly shows that, at the time of Ptolemy IX,
Euergetes II, the living^ Isis was acknowledged as the sole ruler of
the land of the south by the king and his wife, queen Cleopatra III,
who jointly occupied the throne of northern Egypt. Jointly the
latter dedicated a beautiful hall to the goddess Isis, as a place in
which to celebrate the Tekhu feast and in which she might linger
at this season (Brugsch, op. cit. n, p. 284). I have found indi
cations in other works that, in other localities, the goddess entered
a secret chamber in the earth or pyramid or celebrated her sacred
mysteries and festival on the sacred boat of the sun, in the sacred
sea or lake belonging to the temple. In these cases it is obvious
that the dominant idea was the performance of the sacred rites in
the sacred centre or middle.

At a later period Cleopatra VII ascended the female throne at the
age of seventeen and became high-priestess of Amen, the living
image of Isis. It was understood that as soon as her brother
Ptolemy XIV, then aged twelve, should come of age, she was to
marry him. Partly for political reasons, akin to those which had
caused king Horemheb, on his accession, to marry the high priest
ess of Amen, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony become in succes
sion the consorts of Cleopatra, after whose death Egypt became
a Roman province. But the "land of the south," and traditional,

875

440 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

divine, feminine rulership, lingered on. Under the third prefect,
^Elius Gallus, Candnce, queen of the Ethiopians, invades Egypt at
the head of her army. She was defeated, but the position of the
high-priestess of Amen, the living Isis, continued to be such as to
exact the homage and an act of propitiation from the Roman
Emperor.

An inscription, from the time of Augustus, records that a beauti
ful monument, or " house," had been erected by the "lord of the
land, the autocrator, the son of the sun, Caesar," and was pre
sented, at the time of the Isis festival, to " its possessor, the great
Isis, the mother of the god, the mistress of the lying-in-house, the
splendid and mighty queen of Philse, the benevolent princess of
Abaton, the daughter of the sun. She is likewise named " she
who is great or whose greatness extends towards the four quarters"
and is designated as " the royal wife of the majesty of Osiris and
the royal mother of Horns, the victorious bull," i. e. the ka. It
is stated that "she found the house of birth brilliantly adorned
and well arranged in every way" and she installed herself in its in
terior on a given day, so as to bring forth her son in these sur
roundings. One of the rewards promised to C<fesar for the delicate
attention and gift bestowed upon the goddess is " eternal and per
manent occupation of the throne of Horns, the first of the living
ones." According to the Esne calendar a "divine birth" actu
ally took place on a given date. Brugsch, referring to Plutarch and
calendar texts, shows that the commencement of the Isis festival
dated from the time when Isis assumed a phylactery, or amulet,
to indicate that she had conceived.

Another inscription shows that Tiberius Claudius had caused the
house to be renovated for " the mighty goddess Isis, the life giving
mistress of Abaton, the good Hathor, the queen of the land of
Nubia, the divine mother of the golden (Nub) Horus, the benevo
lent sister of Osiris, the great protectress who guards his son."
As Tiberius Claudius, in this text named himself her loving son,
it is obvious that the day had passed away when solely her own
divine son Horus would be the one legitimate and divine heir to the
P^gyptian throne. It is interesting to surmise what became of the
children whose "divine births" continued to be celebrated as a
sacred occurrence to which even a Roman Emperor yielded hom
age. The natural sequence would have been that, accompanied by
a band of devoted followers, the sons of the sun, the young bulls,

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 441

i. e. the ka, or divine twain, ami their sisters, would seek distant
lands in which jointly to establish new kingdoms on the ancient,
familiar plan.

Collectively, the preceding evidence has afforded a realization of
some of the curious but natural results of the prolonged cult of the
dual principles of nature in Egypt, the most remarkable being, per
haps, the creation of a distinct, '• divine " caste of individuals, from
the naive adoption of marriage and birth as consecrated religious
rites, symbolical of the union of heaven and earth and the production
of new life. While atone time, and in certain localities, this mode of
symbolism obviously took the upper hand and fostered the growth
of the artificial idea of the " divine rights of royalty, " there are
evidences that, simultaneously, the union of the dual principles
of nature was symbolized in one or more different archaic and
primitive ways. These appear to have been separately adopted in
various centres of thought where the disastrous and debasing con
sequences of the association of the idea of sex with the cult of
heaven and earth, light and darkness, etc., were realized with
disapproval.

AVe thus find that, even at Edfu, the ceremonial rite of lighting
new sacred fire by means of a wooden instrument and friction wras
performed on the great Isis festival which was marked by the
" divine birth." According to the calendar of Canopus this fell
on the first day of Payni, and a prescribed illumination of the tem
ples and palace was kept up until the 30th or last day of the month.
In the most ancient Egyptian calendars the ki lighting of light" at
the same period is also recorded (Brugsch, op. tit. 11, p. 470) and,
according to Herodotus, the festival was named " the lighting of
lamps " and was observed throughout all Egypt. He adds that
k'a religious reason is given why this night is illuminated and so
honored" (n, 61 and 62).

The influence of increasing astronomical knowledge likewise
shows itself in the joint observation of the movements of sun,
moon and stars and the determination of the relative positions
of the latter to the sun at the periods of the equinoxes and sol
stices. Without taking period or sequence into consideration for
the present, I merely note that we find evidence that, at one time,
images of sun and moon, of the right and left eyes of Ra, or
statues of Hathor-Isis and Osiris, replaced their living images in
religious ceremonies.

877

442 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Sometimes the entire ritual seems to have consisted in the union
of water, the produce of heaven, with seeds, the produce of earth ;
the ensuing germination and production of young shoots being
deemed sacred and symbolical of the renewal of life. The fact
that statuettes of Osiris have actually been found, made of paste
containing various seeds, distinctly shows that, like the Babylonian
Baal, the Egyptian male divinity was identified with the earth.
Another indication of this is furnished by the descriptions of the
feast of Pan, which fell at the period of the spring equinox. At
this period the crop of dura, which had been sown by the king in
the sacred fields at Denderah, at the time of the k 'Osiris mysteries,"
immediately after the inundation had receded and " the earth was
laid bare," became ripe. The ceremony of cutting the first sheaf
of dura was performed by the king, with the silex sickle = khepes.

While Osiris was thus directly associated with the produce of
the earth there are also evidences that, just as Isis became identi
fied with birth and life, her consort became the lord of death and
of the underworld. Mysterious rites and human sacrifices seem
to have been instituted in his honor. According to obscure myths
Osiris himself had been foully murdered, his body cut into four
teen pieces and cast over the length and breadth of the land. His
head was supposed to be preserved at Abydos, the chief centre of
his worship, and shrines were erected over the other portions of
his body. It will be a matter for further research to investigate
whether the " mysteries of Osiris " did not include the dramatiza
tion of the death of Osiris, in which a human victim personified
the god and was actually killed and dismembered.

It is, perhaps, worth noting here, as an analogy, how appro
priately the ancient Mexican annual sacrifice of a youth, -chosen
among the most perfect, might have answered as a rendition of
the drama of Osiris. The body of the victim was divided and the
pieces distributed to a fixed number of priests and chieftains, who
partook of them as sacred food. The head was preserved in the
Great Temple itself, on the Tzompantli, and the large number
of skulls seen there by the Spaniards constituted a proof of the
great antiquity of the custom. The blood of the victim, poured
upon seeds, seems to have been considered essential for bringing
about the germination of the sacred shoots and typical of the
union of the dual principles of nature and of life springing from
death. Idols, formed of seeds moistened with human blood, were
878

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 443

distributed to tlie participants in the ceremony. According to some
authors this sacred paste, and not pieces of human flesh, consti
tuted the consecrated food, eaten according to the prescribed ritual.

How far analogous rites were performed in Egypt remains to be
seen ; it is, at all events, certain that, by slow degrees, the cult of
the dual principles of nature gave rise to the institution of strange
unnatural rites, the original naive meanings of which became ob
scured, debased or lost. While various localities of Egypt, notably
Thebes and Abydos, appear to have become the birthplace of cu
rious aberrations of the human intellect, there was one ancient
and great centre of learning where monotheism and the knowledge
of the fundamental scheme appear to have been preserved intact,
namely, at Heliopolis, the ancient On or Aim of the North, named
the " House of the Sun " by Jeremiah and " the Eye or Fountain
of the Sun " by the Arabs. According to Mr. Wallis Budge, " its
ruins cover an area three miles square . . . the greatest and oldest
Egyptian College or University for the education of the priesthood
and laity stood here . . . During the xxth dynasty the temple of
Heliopolis was one of the largest and wealthiest of all Egypt and
its staff was numbered by thousands. When Cambyses visited
Egypt the glory of Heliopolis was well on the wane and, after the
removal of the priesthood and sages of the temple to Alexandria,
by Ptolemy II (B. C. 286), its downfall was well assured. When
Strabo visited it (B. C. 24) the greater part of it was in ruins ....
Heliopolis had a large population of Jews and it will be remem
bered that Joseph married the daughter of a priest of On (Aniiu)
. . . Macrobius says that the Heliopolis of Syria or Baalbek, was
founded by a body of priests who left the ancient city of Heliopo
lis of Egypt" (The Nile, p. 132).

Indirectly we learn the tenor of the doctrines and ideas held by
the sages of Heliopolis at one period by the remarkable attempt to
reform the religion of Egypt, carried out by their pupil, Amenho-
tep IV (about B. C. 1450). Evidently realizing, with his mas
ters, the extent to which the ancient fundamental religion had
become obscured and debased by the multiplication of images of
the deity, and the institution of rival cults, which were shrouded
in mystery and darkness, the young prince boldly made war against
the priesthood of Amen-Ra and the cult of a 4t hidden god. "

Destroying the monstrous images which had originally been
rebus figures only, and represented the supreme deity in partly

879

444 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

human and animal form, he instituted the disk or circle as the
simple and purer form under which the divinity was to be revered.1
Animated by the clear realization to what an extent the original com
munal or republican scheme of organization was being departed
from by the artificial creation of a " divine " race of kings who
claimed to be gods, he caused himself and his queen to be portrayed
as simple mortals, and not as the deities Osiris and Isis. Choosing
the sun ns his emblem, this champion of pure light and open truth
fought the Egyptian votaries of darkness. He erased the word
Amen z= hidden, from public monuments, changed his own name
from Amenhotep to Chu-en-Aten = the brilliance or glory of the
disk and founded a city also named Chu-aten, which was to be the
centre of a new and reformed state. It seems evident that this
was instituted on the familiar archaic plan and that the so-called
" heresy of Amenhotep " was but an attempt, backed by the sages
and philosophers of Heliopolis, to abolish the artificialities and
abuses which had come into existence and destroyed the order of
the state and the harmony of the primitive plan. It is well known
that gradually Amenhotep' s successors were obliged to yield to the
hostility of the priesthood of the " hidden god " and that these, in
turn, erased or defaced all images of the disk or aten within their
reach.

Ineffectual though the grand attempt had been to reorganize
state and religion and reestablish republican principles, on the orig
inal plan, the knowledge of the original scheme seems to have been
preserved intact during the following centuries, by the sages and
philosophers of Ileliopolis, by whom the primitive set of ideas
seems to have been gradually developed into an abstract philo
sophical system. Reminding the reader that Plato spent i4 thirteen
years in P^gypt, in gaining an insight into the mysterious doctrines
and priest-lore of the sacerdotal caste," I also draw attention to
the passage in his " Timaeus/' in which Critias makes the state-

1 His extremely curious and interesting that the Incas, the civilizers of Peru, also
set up a disk of gold as the image of the Creator and placed it between images of the
sun and moon. We also find the Inca Ccapac Yupanqui, like Amenhotep, deploring the
spread of idolatry and image-worship as a misfortune to his vassals and a sorrow to
himself. It is recorded of another Inca that, as a wise measure he destroyed all writ
ing, presumably picture and rebus writing, as calculated to mislead his people by a
multiplication of symbols. Itis an interesting reflection which our increased knowl
edge of the primitive civilization of Egypt enables us to make, that the organization
of Peru, under Inca rule, must have closely resembled that of Egypt in remotest an
tiquity, at its primitive stage of development, when simplicity, harmony and equi
librium existed throughout the " celestial kingdom."

880

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 445

ment that when Plato's ideal republic . . . was being discoursed
upon, he was reminded, to his surprise, of the account of a state
given to the Greek sage, Solon, by the priests of Sais, and per
ceived how, u in most respects, the republic described coincided
with Solon's statements." Jt is indeed striking how clearly we can
recognize, in Plato's republic, the underlying, primitive, universal
scheme in this case, highly developed, elaborated, transfigured and
transformed into the philosophical ideal of a great intellect.

Before demonstrating which of the main features of Plato's cos
mogony and ideal republic we have found actually carried out in
practice, let us briefly refer to the most ancient descriptions of the
primitive government of Greece, preserved in the Timaeus and
Critias, where the conversations held, by Solon, with the priests of
Sai's are recorded. Solon (about 594 B. C.) on his arrival (at Sais)
'* was very honorably received ; and especially, on his inquiring
about ancient affairs of those priests who possessed superior knowl
edge in such matters, he perceived that neither himself nor any
one of the Greeks (so to speak) had any antiquarian knowledge
at all . . . . One of their extremely ancient priests said to Solon :
' you (Greeks) are all youths in intelligence, for you hold no an
cient opinions derived from remote tradition nor any system of

discipline that can boast of a hoary old age In this our

country, . . . the most ancient things are said to be here pre
served .... and all the noble, great or otherwise distinguished
achievements, performed either by ourselves, by you or elsewhere,
of which we have heard the report, all these have been engraved in
our temples in very remote times and preserved to the present day.
The annals of our own city (Sai's) have been preserved eight
thousand years in our sacred writings . . . your state has a prior
ity over ours of a thousand years I will briefly describe

the law and more illustrious actions of those states which have
existed nine thousand years ' " (Timaeus) . It is interest
ing at this point to recall also the familiar statements made by the
priests of Sais to Solon, concerning the immense antiquity of the
human race and the "multitude and variety of destructions which
have been and will be undergone by the human race .... after
which nations become young again, as at first, knowing nothing of
the events of ancient times" (Tirnseus, v).

Referring the reader to the original text I merely point out here
that the priest of Sai's, referring to the sacred writings themselves,
p. M. PAPERS i 56 881

446 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

assigned to remotest antiquity the principle of distribution and
arrangement on which the state had originally been founded and
established. In the Critias the description of the Athenian state,
which "had been founded nine thousand" years before, contains the
following particulars which will appear familiar to the reader.
" To the gods was once locally allotted the whole earth ....
Obtaining a country agreeable to them by just allotment, they
chose regions for their habitations .... Different gods received
by lot different regions .... Hephaestus and Athene, a brother
and sister, both received one region as their common allotment . . .
their temple was built on the Acropolis .... whose northern and
southern slopes were respectively associated with separate winter
and summer residences." The population was divided into classes
and each caste occupied a fixed place of residence. "The outer
parts, down the flanks (of the Acropolis) were inhabited by crafts
men and husbandmen who tilled the neighboring land ; the war
rior-classes lived separately, by themselves, in the more elevated
parts around the temple of Athene and Hephaestus, which they
had formed, as it were, into the garden of a single dwelling by
encircling it with one enclosure" (The Critias, vi). "... On this
site was a single fountain which furnished every part with abundant
water . . ." " The ' guardians of the state' were the * leaders ' of
the Greeks and as to their number they paid special attention that
they should always have the same number of men and women
that might serve in war, the whole being about twenty thousand."
In the description given, in the Critias, of the state of Atlan
tis, the identical features recur, but are more fully described. In
the centre of the island of Atlantis stood a mountain, surrounded
by a plain, which was ultimately made square. The mountain was
the residence of a pair of mythical lovers, consisting of a god and
of a mortal woman, and became the birthplace of their offspring,
'* a divine race of kings." tc The god . . . with his divine power,
agreeably adorned the centre of the island, causing two fountains
of water to shoot upwards from beneath the earth, one cold and
the other hot, and making every variety of food to spring abun
dantly from the earth." The central hill, from which thus pro
ceeded all life and festivity, was at first " circularly enclosed, the
land and sea being formed into alternate zones, greater and less,
two out of laud and three out of sea, from the centre of the island
all equally distant." The ten kings, born of the "divine union,.
8H2

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 447

lived each in his own district and city, and ruled supreme over his
people. The government and commonwealth in each case was, by
the injunction of the god, according to the laws which were handed
down. The latter were inscribed on a column of orichalcum which
was deposited in the centre of the island, in the temple of the god,
where the ten kings originally assembled every fifth year. A fire
burned near the column and a bull was sacrificed at its base, after
which a sacred cup was filled with its blood and this was poured
into the fire by way of purifying the column " (Critias, vn— xvi).
The above mention of a column is of interest when it is realized
that, in historical times, the laws of Solon were actually inscribed
on a square wooden pillar which was made to revolve or turn and
was placed on the Acropolis. The presence of a revolving pillar
on the Acropolis, the sacred centre of the Athenian state, is, more
over, curiously in keeping with the conception of axial energy set
forth by Plato and awakens the desire to learn from Greek schol
ars what relationship, if any, there was between the Sanscrit aksa
— axle or axis, the Greek akra (akris = summit, akros = most
high, supreme, akrisios — mountain-top god) and the Egyptian
ak = the Centre, and hak = a king ; and whether the word polis =
city was connected with polos — the pole-star, an axis, pivot or
pole, from polein i= to turn, and may be interpreted as the equiva
lent of the Egyptian An and Annu. It would also be important
to learn whether the name of the principal ancient god of Greece,
Apollo, who was revered under the form of a column at Delphi,
can also be connected with the verb polein or pelein = to turn, as
well as the name Polias i. e. the goddess protecting the city, a sur
name for Minerva (Athene) at Athens, where she was worshipped
at one time as the protecting divinity of the Acropolis. The title
Poliuchus, tc protecting the city," occurs as a surname of several
divinities and particularly of Minerva Chalchioecus, k' of the brazen
house," at Sparta and Athens. It is instructive likewise to com
pare the Greek words for axis = axon, and polis =city, with Helice,
the name for Ursa Major and for a town in Arcadia, with the Egyp
tian Annu, An or On, the names of capitals, and the Egyptian word
an — that which turns around. It will be for Greek and Egyptian
scholars to enlighten us as to whether the Egyptian an and the
Greek polis are synonyms ; in which connection I draw their atten
tion to the following suggestive passage of the Critiaa (vn)
". . . . Yet before we narrate this we must briefly warn you not to

883

448 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

be surprised at hearing Hellenic names given to barbarians . . .
and the cause of this you shall now hear. Solon made an inves
tigation into the power of names and found that the early Egyp
tians, who committed these facts to writing, transferred these
names into their own language ; and he again, receiving the mean
ing of each name, introduced it by writing into our language."
While, on one hand, it is certain that the Egyptian astronomer-
priests associated the pole star with the words An, Ann, Anubis,
on the other, the following passages from Plato's works clearly
demonstrate his views concerning axial rotation.1 A fresh interest
is undoubtedly added to Plato's philosophy when it is regarded as
the possible result of the thirteen years spent by him with the
Egyptian priesthood, who may possibly have confided to him the
entire sum of their ancient philosophy and accumulated store of
knowledge, and who certainly seem to have imposed upon him the
reticence and obscurity noticeable in the Republic, the Critias and
the Timaeus.

To those who have followed my investigation of the ancient state
organization and cosmical conceptions of the ancient Egyptians,
and noted the interpretation given to the pyramid and the fact that
Amenophis instituted the disk as the image of the Supreme Being,
the following detached extracts from Plato's Timseus will appear

1 The following detached extracts, partly from Mr. Richard Hinckley Allen's valua
ble work, should be carefully studied in connection with the above text, as they
throw further light upon the ideas associated with the sacred centres of heaven and
earth by nations with whom the Greeks were in touch.

" To the whole Arabian nation, heathen or Mahommedan, Polaris was Alfaes, the
hole in which the earth's axle found its bearing " (p. 451).

The following important material pertains to the chapter on India, of whose in
sufficiency lam painfully aware. " In earliest Northern India the star nearest the
pole was known as Grahadhara, ' the pivot of the planets,' representing the great
god Dhruva, and Al Biruni said that among the Hindus of his time it was Dhruva
himself. It was an object of their worship" (p. 456).

In Bournouf's Bhagavata-purana (chap, iv) it is said that " Dhruva, meditating on
Brahma, stood on one foot, motionless as a post; while he did so half the world,
wounded by his big toe, bent over under his weight like a boat which, bearing a vig
orous elephant, leans at each step he takes, from left to right." O'Neil, citing the
same source continues: "Inconsequence of his austerities Bhagavat said ' I grant
thee virtuous Child, a Spot which has never yet been occupied by any being, a Spot
blazing with splendor, of which the ground is firm, where is fixed the circus of the
celestial lights, of the planets, constellations and stars; which turn all around like
oxen round their stake, and which [the Spot] subsists motionless even after the
Dwellers of a Kalpa [a day and night of Brahma /. e. 4,320,000,003 years] have dis
appeared. Around this Spot there turn with the stars and leaving it on their right,

Dharma, Agni, Kasyapa and Sakra and the Solitaries who live in the Forest' "

(p. 801). According to the Vishnu-purana: " As Dhruva turns, he c luses sun, moon
and other planets to turn round also, and the lunar asterisms follow in his circular

884

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 449

familiar and full of fresh significance. " To discover the Father
and Creator of this universe (also called the heaven or the world) or
his work is indeed difficult; and when discovered it is impossible to
reveal him to mankind at large , . . . . The composing (or framing)
Artificer constituted the universe from entire elements of fire,
water, air and earth and .... considering that it would thus be a
whole animal .... He gave it also a figure becoming and allied
to its nature ; and to the animal destined to comprehend all others
within itself that figure as the most becoming which includes within
itself every sort of figure whatever. Hence he fashioned it in the
shape of a sphere, perfectly round, having its centre everywhere
equally distant from the bounding extremities .... He assigned
to it a motion peculiar to itself .... making the world to turn
constantly on itself and on same point, he gave it a circular motion
.... he assigned to it a motion peculiar to itself, being that of
all the seven kinds of motion . . . As for the soul, he fixed it in the
middle, extended it throughout the whole and likewise surrounded
it with its entire surface .... and so, causing a circle to revolve
in a circle, he established the world as one substantive, solitary
object .... Let the universe be called heaven or the world or by
any other name it usually receives . . . The soul of this universe

course, for all the celestiallights are in fact bound to the Polar star by aerial cords"
(Vishnu-purana, see O'Neil, p. 503). It is instructive to compare these descriptions
of Dhruva with the Akkadian-Sumerian hymm to Ishtar, whom I have identified as
the female form of Polaris (p. 342). According to Professor Sayoe it begins : "Thou
who as the axis of the heavens dawnest. In the dwellings of the earth her name re
volves" (O'Neil, p. 715).

O'Neil further notes that " Dhruva is named the sun of Uttana-Pada " and that this
name is connected with uttarat = north and also signifies outstretched, supine. He
also states that " Uttara andUttara was the dual god of the north, the son and daugh
ter of Virata, and expresses the opinion that the age of the Dhruva legend is unut
terable" (p. 503).

According to another Sanscrit legend : "At one time in the history of the creation
an attempt was made by Visvamitra to locate a southern pole and another bear in
positions corresponding to the northern, this pole passing through the island Lumka
or Vadavamukha (Ceylon)" (Allen, p. 430). Professor Sayce writes: " In early Su-
merian days, the heaven was believed to rest upon the peak of ' the mountain of the
world ' in the far northeast, where the gods had their habitations (<•/. Isa. xiv, 13)
[the mount of congregation in the uttermost parts of the north], while an ocean or
'deep 'encircled the earth which rested upon its surface." Von Herder referred to
it as " Albordz, the dazzling mountain on which was held the assembly of the gods,
and identified it with the holy mountain of God," alluded to in the Book of the Prophet
Ezekiel xxviil, 14; and Professor Whitney quoted from the sixty-second verse of
the first chapter of the Surya Siddhanta, "the mountain which is the seat of the gods"
and from the thirty-fourth verse of the twelfth chapter: "A collection of mani
fold jewels, a mountain of gold, is Meru, passing through the middle of the earth-
globe, and protruding on either side;" commenting on which he says: the " seat of
the gods " is Mount Meru, situated at the North Pole " (p. 452).

885

450 KKY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

. . . being composed of three parts . . . being interwoven through
out from the middle to the very extremities of space and covering-
it even all around externally, though at the same time herself re
volving within herself, originated the divine commencement of an
unceasing and wise life throughout all time .... Time . . . was
generated with the universe .... Time . . . an eternal image on
the principles of numbers . . . the perfect number of time com
pletes a perfect year . . . for this purpose . . . were formed such
of the stars as moved circularly throuyli the universe . . . ."

While a careful study of Plato's work will further elucidate his
views concerning the quadruplicate nature of the universe, of its
comprehensive unity, of axial rotation, the generation of time
and of the principle of numbers, I point out that the following
passage conveys the idea of applying the universal plan to the
regulation of human thought: "This, however, we may assert,
that God invented and bestowed sight upon us for the express
purpose, that on surveying the circles of intelligence in, the heavens,
we might properly employ those of our minds, which, though dis
turbed when compared with the others that are uniform, are still
allied to their circulation and that, having thus learned and being
naturally possessed of a correct reasoning faculty, we might, by
imitutiHfj the uniform revolutions of divinity, set right our own silly
wanderings and blunders."

There are two portions of Plato's cosmology to which I wish
particularly to draw attention, because of the striking examples
that exist, showing that the views therein expressed and sugges
tions given, were independently carried into practice in ancient
times, in widely separated countries. One is the suggestive at
tempt to figure the Cosmos by geometrical images, a method which
had been carried out by the pyramid-builders and Ameuophis III
and suggests an explanation for the origin and meaning of the
geometrical decoration that prevailed at one period of antiquity.
The other is the association of time with the principles of numbers,
the most remarkable exemplifications of which are furnished by
theP^gyptian, Hindu, Chinese, Mexican and Maya cyclical systems,
founded upon the associations of divisions of time and numerals,
and even and uneven numbers with day-names, etc.

Having; hastily noted some features of Plato's Cosmos let us
next obtain an insight into the ideas associated with Polaris and
the Septentriones by the ancient Greeks and their neighbors, before
£80

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 451

and after Plato's time. I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness
to Mr. Richard Ilinckley Allen's " Star-names and their meanings "
(New York, 1899), for the following valuable information and at
the same time express my regret that his useful work was unknown
to me when I wrote the preceding portion of my investigation.1

" Ursa Minor was not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod for, ac
cording to Strabo, it was not admitted among the constellations of
the Greeks until about 600 B. C. when Thales, inspired by its use
in Phoenicia, his probable birthplace, suggested it to the Greek
mariners in place of its greater neighbor which till then had been
their sailing guide. Thence its title Phoenice and Ursa Phoenicia.
But it also shared, with Ursa Major, the titles Septentrio, Aratos,,
Amaxa, Aganna and Ilelice. It also bore the ; early and universal
title' Kynosura or Cynosura, usually translated ' the Dog's Tail,'
the origin of which is uncertain, Bournouf asserting that ' it is in
no way associated with the Greek word for dog.' Cox identified the
word with Lycosura (meaning tail or trail of light), which recalls
the city of that name in Arcadia considered, by Pausauias, the
most ancient in the world, having been founded by Lycaon some
time before the Deluge of Deucalion."

" Euclid said in his Phainomena : ' A star is visible between
the Bears, not changing its place, but always revolving upon itself
(cf. Plato's Cosmos). Ilipparclms, that the pole was ' in a vacant
spot forming a quadrangle with three other stars,' both writers
calling this Polos, the Polus of Lucan, Ovid and other classical
Latins, and Euphratean observers had called their pole-star Pul or

1 I likewise deeply regret that it is only since the last pages of the present inves
tigation have been in proof, that a remarkable work, full of valuable material relat
ing to the universal spread of pole star worship and symbolism, was particularlv
recommended to me by a distinguished fellow archa-ologist. Had I realized before
this the great value of the late .John O'Neil's " The Night of the Gods " (David Nutt,
London, 1837), as a compendium, the result of years of conscientious and painstak
ing labor, I should have made extensive use of it and should have been able to
make my survey of the ancient civilizations of the Old World far more complete
and my material more convincing. As it is, 1 can only warmly recommend the work
to all interested in the present investigation, who will see for themselves the widely
different points of view from which our respective researches have been carried out
but will probably be struck with the identity of some of our views. I should like to
express here my keen realization of the many blunders and omissions I have
probably made in the course of the present investigation, which carried me, reluct
antly, into fields of research where I felt myself to be a stranger. In view of the
disadvantages under which I have labored, under pressureof time and a frequent in
ability to obtain all the books I wished to consult, I rely upon the leniency of spec
ialists and upon their kindly communicating to me the faults they detect, so that I
may avoid them in future publications.

887

452 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Bil. But, although other astronomical writers used these words
for some individual star, there is no certainty as to which was in
tended, for it should be remembered that, during many millenniums,
the polar point has gradually been approaching our pole-star which,
2000 years ago, was far removed from it, in Hipparchus' time 12°
24' away, according to his own statement, quoted by Marinas of
Tyre and cited by Ptolemy. Heraclitus, the Ionian philosopher
of P^phesus of about 500 B. C., asserted that this constellation
marked the boundary between the ea«t and the west, which it may
be regarded as doing when on the horizon." This statement is of
extreme importance as it proves an orientation of the north by the
pole-star and not by the solstitial position of the sun. " Another
name for it, [IhvOwv, used for it or its quarter of the sky, was from
the Greek, as seen in Plutarch's a! rwv -nhvOiwv uxoypayat) the
'fields' or ' spaces' into which the augurs divided the heavens,
the templa, or regiones CQ3li of the Latins . . . . "

" In Homer's Iliad and Odyssey the use of the seven stars of
Ursa Major in Greek navigation is clearly shown. The constella
tion is entitled the Bear = arctos, described, according to different
translators, as ' circling on high,' ' wheeling round,' or * revolving
around the axle of the sky.'1 Homer used, equally with Arctos,

J" The Century Dictionary has a theory as to the origin of the idea of a Bear for the
seven stars, doubtless from its editor, Professor Whitney, that seems plausible, at all
events scholarly. It is that their Sanscrit designation, Riksha, signifies, in two differ
ent genders, 'a bear' and 'a star,' 'bright' or 'to shine;' hence a title, the Seven
Shiners, — to that it would appear to have come, by some confusion of sound of the two
words, among a people not familiar with the sound " (p. 424). "Later on Riksha was
confounded with Rishi, and so connected with the Seven Sages or Poets of India.
Al Biruni devoted a chapter of his work on India to the seven stars [of Ursa Major]
known as Saptar Shayar, the seven Anchorites" (Allen). I draw attention here to
the curious fact that the Sanscrit verb to see = iksh is nearly homonymous with
riksha and that therefore, in Sanscrit, the association of a star with the eye =
akshan, that sees = iksh, must have been a very close one and suggested the em
ployment of the eye as a symbol for star. In connection with the Sanscrit riksha it is
curious to note that, in Japanese, riki means power, viz., jin-riki-sha = man — power —
wagon; and hasha or rinsha = wagon or wain. The following extract from one of
the hymns in the oldest Veda, the Brahmaua, which " mark the beginning of the philo
sophical creed of the Vedic period," is particularly significant when compared, not
only with the preceding association of Ursa Major with the seven sages of India, but
also with Plato's cosmological doctrines : " I have beheld the Lord of Men," one poet
writes, " with seven sons, of which delightful and benevolent [deity] who is the ob
ject of our invocation, there is an all-pervading middle brother and a third brother
.... They yoke the seven to the one wheeled car; one horse named seven bears it
along; the three-axled ivheel is undecaying, necer loosened and in it all these region*

of the universe abide Immature, undiscerning in mind, I inquire of those things

which are hidden from the gods [cf. Hymn to Amen-Ra, p. 388, where the same expres
sion is used], the seven threads which the sages have spread to envelop the sun in whom
all abide" (Chambers' Encyclopaedia, article India).
888

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 453

the name Amaxa — the wain or wagon, to designate the seven
stars. Ara-tos called the constellation the ' Wain-like Bear;' and,
alluding to the title Amaxa, asserted that the word was from ama
= together, the Amaxai thus circling together around the pole ;
but no philologist accepts this and it might as well have come from
axion = axle, referring to the axis of the heavens. In fact
Hewitt goes far back of Aratos in his statement that the Sanscrit
god Akshivan, the Driver of the Axle (aksha), was adopted in
Greece as Ixion, whose well-known wheel was merely the circling
course of this constellation. Anacreon mentioned it as a Chariot
as well as a Bear; and Hesychius had it Aganna, an archaic word
from agein, ' to carry,' singularly like, in orthography at least,
the Akkadian title for the Wain stars, Aganna or Akanna, the
Lord of Heaven ; and Aben Ezra called it Ajala, the Hebrew word
for ' waggon.' The name Helice from Eh'=, the Curved, or Spi
ral One, apparently first used by Aratos and Apollonius Rhodius,
became common as descriptive of its twisting around the pole, . .
. . Sophocles having the same thought in his mention of ' the
circling paths of the Bear.' Some, however, derived the name
from the curved or twisted positions of the chief stars .....
Helice was also the name of a city in Arcadia, the country so inti
mately connected with the Bears, whose inhabitants were called
the Bear race."

As far back as Hesiod's time the constellation was associated in
myth, with the name Kallisto, " the beautiful," which " La Laude
referred to the Phoenician Kalitsah or Chalitsa, Safety, as its ob
servation helped to a safe voyage. Another version of the Gre
cian myth associated the constellation with Artemis, the Roman
Diana [*'. e. the huntress, cf. Ishtar and Isis-Satit]." The apparent
connection of the name Artemis with Themis =r " law and justice
personified," should be noted here.

The preceding statements establish that, in ancient Greece,
Polaris was identified with the celestial Polos and was described as
a star, not changing its place, but always revolving on itself and it
appears superfluous to point out how closely Plato's Cosmos agrees
with the current astronomical theories. The Ursae,on the other hand,
were identified with the titles Helice, referring to axial rotation, and
with the names Aganna (Akanua) Arctos and Amaxa, which are
identical in sound with the words we have found associated with
Polaris and the Septentriones in the ancient Egyptian texts.

889

454 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Deferring the demonstration that a number of the natural ob
jects or animals represented in the Egyptian rebus signs, which
were merely employed in hieratic script to express the syllables
an, am, ar, ak, etc., are to be found as actual names for Polaris
and the Ursa? in different western Asiatic and other countries, I
shall now briefly show that, in remotest historical times, the
Grecian states were established upon the model of an ideal repub
lic such as is outlined in Plato's works, in accordance with current
cosmological conceptions. According to ancient tradition the abo
rigines of Attica were first civilized under Cecrops who is said to
have come hither from Sa'is, Egypt, about 1500 B. C.

Turning to I wan Mueller's monumental " Alterthumswissen-
schaft" (iv. Handbuch der Griechische Alterthumer) , let us exam
ine the data he presents concerning the beginnings of Athenian
culture.

" The historical inhabitants of Attica belonged to the Ionic race
and claimed to be autochthonous .... They were grouped into
four tribes : the Geleoutes, Argadeis, Aigikoreis and Hopletes.
The existence of these four tribes is usually connected with a ter
ritorial division of Attica into four parts and their names are sup
posed to have been derived from the location and occupation of
each tribe. The Geleontre = the shining ones, are said to have
formed the priest or warrior caste and to have lived in Pedion.
'I he Argad^i were the agriculturists and were situated in the plain
of Thriasis. The Aigikoraai or goatherds were assigned to Diak-
ria. Authorities still disagree about the habitation of the Hopletes,
• the armed ones.' The interpretation of these names is still open
to doubt. An ancient tradition attributes to them an Ionic deriva
tion On the other hand, it is probable that when they emi
grated to Attica the tribe remained separate and became associated

with their place of residence at a later period the phratries

were associated with localities Each of the four castes

had its chieftain and an equality of rank seems to have been main
tained. In ancient times the citizens were divided into three
classes : the EupatricUe or nobility ; the Geomoraj or farmers ; and
the Demiurge or artisans, merchants, potters or fishermen, — in
fact all who exercised some occupation.

"The political unity of Attica was centred in the plain of Ceph-
isos, which was the kernel of the country. In the lower part of
the plain, about a mile from the sea, situated on a plateau, and

81)0

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 455

crowning a high rocky elevation, lay the ancient fortress Cekropia,
the residence of Cecrops and Erechtheus, the mythical, earth-born
forefathers of the Athenians. At the foot of the fortress, a lower
town gradually grew up and spread itself towards the south. This
primitive Athens originally formed only the nucleus of a small
kingdom situated in the plains and surrounded by enemies

According to an Attic tradition Cecrops collected the inhab
itants of Attica into 12 . . . tribes, states or communities . . .
The names of several of these have been shown to have also been
applied to capitals which were independent centres of government.
Athens, the centre of the state, developed into a large city in which
the nobility of the whole country resided and where many artisans
also settled. The majority of the citizens lived, however, in the sur
rounding country The harvest festival, held at ancient

Athens, in honor of the goddess Athene, the patroness of agricul
ture, was also a general feast for all inhabitants of Attica . . . "
(pp. 104-108).

The foregoing suffices to establish that, in remotest antiquity,
Attica was divided into four territorial divisions, with a central
seat of government, the capital, which formed the fifth division.
The inhabitants of the four regions constituted four tribes, each
under its own chieftain. Each tribe became identified with a differ
ent occupation and ultimately constituted castes which remained
associated with their place of residence. Simultaneously with this
territorial distribution, another classification of the population was
evolved, which divided it into three strata, corresponding to the
upper, central and lower caste and thus yielded a total of seven
great divisions of the state, which thus reveals itself as having
been a heptarchy and explains the constitution of the Ileptanomis,
which existed in Central Egypt under Greek rule.

From the preceding material it appears that when Solon divided
the people into four classes, he merely reinstated the most ancient
form of state organization known in Greece. It would be interest
ing to learn how far the following offices had been previously known.
It is well known that Solon instituted nine archons (literally
leaders), which seem to have been the equivalents to the group of
"nine gods" mentioned in Egypt in association with the supreme
god or goddess. The characteristic feature of the archons ap
pears to have been the fact that they were elected and that the first
arc-lion was suruamed Epouymos and gave his name to the year;

891

456 KEY-NOTE OK ANCIENT

the second archon, entitled Basileus, was the king, and the third,
Polemarchas, was a warrior. The remaining six were collectively
called Thesmothetes, administrators of right or justice. Under the
above was the Council of Four Hundred. Each of the four phylae
fell into three parts or thirds, producing a total of 12, a number
corresponding to the organization of twelve tribes, communities
or states. Each of these was divided into 4 Naucrariae, under 48
captaincies. The following extracts from Iwan Miiller's work sup
ply us with further details concerning the Athenian government
and show that variants of the same existed at different periods,
throughout ancient Greece.

" At Athens, in historical times, the members of one tribe formed
a corporation, recognized a common ancestor, observed a form of
ancestral cult and kept a tribal register with the names of all newly
born children (p. 20). The tribes formed corporations within the
state, and each had its own cult and chieftain. . . . The Doric
nation consisted of three such tribes. ... In Ephesus the citi
zens were divided into five ' gens ' (i. e., four quarters and centre).
It is certain that in Athens, Gyrene, and Chios, the phratries were
communities with separate forms of cult, who worshipped beside
their tribal deities, Zeus Phratrios and Athena Phratria . . ."
(pp. 20 and 21).

"In Teos the towns inhabited by a 'gens' were divided into
at least seven quarters .... In Tenos each gens was known as
' a tower,' and each individual bore the name of his tower and his
gens." Pausing here for an instant, I draw attention to the recur
rence in Greece of certain features of the Great Plan which must
now be familiar to the reader : the association of divisions of peo
ple with a " tower," an artificial " high place " or mountain, the
development and existence of separate forms of cult, correspond
ing to tribal and territorial divisions ; the supreme cult of a male
and female divinity, corresponding to the traditions that the state
was founded by two individuals and was governed by two rulers.
An illustration of this is furnished by Sparta, which " was gov
erned by two kings, belonging to two different royal families . . .
the origin of this custom is unknown .... these kings usually
were at enmity with each other . . ." " The population of Sparta
wus primarily divided into five ' phyles,' identified with five local
districts. The names of the latter, Pitane, Mesoa, Limnai,
Konoura and Dyme, were identical with those of the five Comes or

892

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 457

group of separate communities which had constituted the state of
Sparta at the time of Thucydides." It will be perceived that this
organization corresponds to that of a capital and four provinces.
Simultaneously tlie population was grouped into three main classes
and twenty-seven phratries.

Considering that in ancient times the belief prevailed, and was
shared by the Spartans themselves, that Lycurgus had introduced
his scheme of organization from Crete, it is interesting to learn that
" the Cretans themselves claimed that their laws dated from a re
mote antiquity and had been communicated to Minos and Rhada-
manthus by Zeus himself." In one of the most ancient portions of
the Odysseus, Idomeneus is represented as ruling in particular over
cities situated in the middle of the island. In historical times the
central rulership or monarchy had been abolished and "the state
was ruled by ten chiefs of tribal divisions, who bore in common
the title Cosmos and held office for the limit of one year." Although
the most ancient accounts of the maritime supremacy of Crete
under its king Minos, the 'k son of Zeus," are regarded as grossly
exaggerated, modern authorities agree that, on account of its geo
graphical position, Crete must undoubtedly have been an extremely
important centre of maritime commerce, during a prolonged period.

On this account, and because the Spartans acknowledged to
have received their scheme of organization from Crete, I draw
particular attention to the design on a coin from Cnossus, the most
important capital of Crete, which recently arrested my attention.
It is preserved at the Berlin Museum and is reproduced in Spamer's
work, already cited (fig. 72, 14 and 15). On the obverse, it exhib
its the fabulous Minotaurus the monster, half man and half bull,
who is stated to have ruled the island. On the reverse, is a geo
metrical figure, representing a swastika, in the centre of which is
the five-dot group. A similar coin also found on the site of Cnos
sus, and assigned to B. C. 700, is preserved at the British Museum.
Its reverse exhibits also the five-dot group and the swastika, be
tween whose branches are four large dots or circles. In the Berlin
Museum specimen the latter are replaced by squares containing
cross lines. To any one familiar, in the first case, with the scheme
of organization into five Comes, i. e. 4 -|- 1, such as has been shown
to have been adopted in Sparta and elsewhere in Greece, the de
sign on the reverse of both coins appears perfectly intelligible.
No geometrical or cursive sign could more clearly express the

893

458

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

scheme or ground-plan upon which the most ancient form of gov
ernment in Greece has been shown to have also rested.

As to the image of the Minotaurus on the obverse of the Berlin
coin: to anyone familiar with the widespread system of figuring
the state under the form of a human being or of a quadruped, aud

e 7

.ifflr£l»«P«W^

nMKBjsasBSig

- -!Siferf»SMjS

liTx. sL XL atT\^ Jg*)fa

FIG. 72.

of symbolizing its ruler as its head, the image appears intelligible
as that of the quadruplicate state. The circumstance that the
head is that of a bull seems to indicate that, like the Egyptians, the
Cretans applied the title u bull " to their king ; thence perhaps
the fable that the island was at one time governed by the monster
804

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 45(J

Minotaurus who claimed as annual tribute, from conquered tribes,
seven youths and maidens. It is striking how perfectly the geo
metrical figures on the reverse of both coins, which I hold to rep
resent territorial divisions, seem to form the complement to the
image of the state represented in semi-human and semi-animal
form. Interesting variants of the same design appear on two coins
of the same period in the British Museum collection. One of these,
from Syracuse, exhibits a swastika, in the centre of which is a
human head — a sign which I should interpret as the image of a
state and its single central ruler. A coin from Corinth displays
a plain swastika only, which suffices to indicate, however, that
its state organization was on the familiar plan.

In connection with the swastika and five-dot group it is interest
ing to examine some ancient Egyptian seals exhibiting crosses
with four dots or strokes (fig. 72, 3-5), and to compare these
with Rhodian specimens (10-13). On vases found by Schliemann
on the site of Troy (8 and 9), we find, in one case a swastika
and in the other a cross and four dots in a circle forming the nave.
It is interesting to compare the Athenian nos. 6 and 7, one being
a swastika and the other a cross in a lozenge.1 An extremely
curious instance of an entire decoration of a building consisting of
crosses and five-dot groups, is furnished by the cenotaph erected by
a late king in honor of Midas, king of Phrygia (fig. 72, 2), which,
curiously enough, offers much resemblance to the geometrical style
of stucco decorations of the ruins of Mitla, Mexico.2 The pres
ence of the swastika on coins assigned to about B. C. 700 and its
use in Greece, where plain cross-symbols had previously been em
ployed, naturally leads to the inquiry as to the oldest-dated swas
tikas which have hitherto been found in Greece and Egypt.

In his important work on the subject already referred to, Prof.
Thomas Wilson (op. cit. pp. 806 and 833), cites the opinions of
Prof. Max Miiller and Count Goblet d'Alviella as agreeing with
that of Waring, who states that "the swastika is sought for in
vain in Babylonia, Assyria and Phoenicia," and " had no foothold
in Egypt." The same authority says that: '-the only sign ap
proaching the fylfot in Egyptian hieroglyphics .... is not very
similar to our fylfot . . . and forms one of the hieroglyphs of Isis "

1 Fig. 72, 1, is referred to on p. 319.

2 The original name for Phrygia is said to tiave been Askanios, from Askanios its
first ruler. The cenotaph of Midas is built in the rock at Jazylykaia, in the vicinity
of Kumbet, where other similarly decorated royal tombs exist.

460 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

(Ceramic Art in Remote Ages, p. 82). On the other hand, Pro
fessor Goodyear says (Grammar of the Lotus, p. 356) : " The
earliest dated swastikas, hitherto found in Egypt, occur on the
foreign Cyprian and Carian [?] pottery fragments of the time of
the twelfth dynasty [B. C. 2466-2266] discovered by Mr. Flinders
Petrie in 1889. In the Third Memoir of the Egypt Exploration
Fund, Prof. Flinders Petrie published illustrations of Greek vases
showing unmistakable swastikas which, though found at Naukratis
in Egypt, are not Egyptian, but Greek."

The only other examples of the swastika in Egypt cited by Prof.
Thomas Wilson are those woven on Coptic grave cloths made of
linen and reproduced in "Die Graber- und Textilfunde von Achmim-
Panopolis by R. Ferrer." These grave cloths pertained to the
Christian Greeks who migrated from their country during the first
centuries of our era and settled in Upper Egypt, in Coptos and
the surrounding cities. I am able to add another instance of the
employment of the swastika in Egypt, which, although of Coptic
origin, attaches itself to ancient Egypt.

I have already pointed out that, in Lepsius' Book of the Dead,
the foremost of the gods of the four quarters, represented in
mummy form, exhibited a cross on his right shoulder. During a
recent visit to the Berlin Museum, my attention was arrested by
seeing a swastika painted in precisely the same position, on the
right shoulder of the stucco mummy case of a man, from Hermop-
olis, dated from the second century after Christ (Catalogue No.
11649). This remarkable coincidence seems to furnish conclusive
evidence that, long before the introduction of Greek culture and
Christian influence, the plain cross was employed by the ancient
Egyptians in precisely the same way as, subsequently, the swas
tika by the Copts. To some of my readers the question will per
haps suggest itself whether some early Christian sects and, amongst
them, communities of Greek Copts, did not interpret the mission of
Christ literally, as an attempt to reestablish an earthly " kingdom
of heaven" on the ancient plan, the knowledge of which had been
preserved at Heliopolis, by the sages and philosophers of Egypt
and the large Hebrew colony established there.

Returning to the swastika : From the account given by Prof.
Thomas Wilson (op. eft., 810) of Schliemaun's observations on the
swastikas he discovered, during his excavations on the site of Troy,
we learn that, whereas the swastika occurs on thousands of whorls
8!»6

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 461

found in the third, fourth and fifth cities, but few whorls were found
in the first and second cities, which were the deepest and oldest
and none of thexe bore the swastika mark. These observations,
added to the appearance of the swastika in Egypt at a compara
tively late period, appear to prove that, whereas the cross-symbol
was known in remotest antiquity in Asia Minor and Egypt and
expressed the same meaning as the swastika, i. e. Polaris and cir-
cumpolar rotation and the quadruplicate organization of the Cos
mos suggested by these natural phenomena, it was only the form
or shape of the cross which underwent a change at a certain
period. The earliest-dated specimens of this new form, given to
a more ancient symbol, occur on the pottery fragments found in
Egypt by Prof. Flinders Petrie. The presence of the swastika, on
the whorls found in the ruins of the third city built on the site of
Troy, also indicates that its adoption occurred at a fixed date and
marked a new departure.

Referring back to page 21, where I show that the observations
which led to the adoption of the swastika as a symbol could not
possibly have been made until after Ursa Major had become cir-
cumpolar, about B. C. 4000, I point out that the oldest swastikas
which have hitherto been found corroborate this view, since they
are all posterior to the time when Ursa Major became circumpolar.
Long anterior to its adoption, however, the primordial set of ideas,
suggested to the human mind by the observation of natural phe
nomena, had reached an advanced stage of development, and had
been worked out, applied to the regulation of human life and
symbolized, in various ways, in widely separated countries.

It is impossible to conclude my comparative research, which has
been rewarded by a most unexpected wealth of material, without
enumerating a few facts connected with the earliest histories of
Rome, ancient Ireland, Britain, Wales and Scandinavia. These
brief and doubtlessly imperfect resumes will have fulfilled their
purpose if they stimulate inquiry and evoke authoritative state
ments by learned specialists.

ANCIENT ROME.

Whether Rome " was founded by the common resolve of a Latin
confederacy or by the enterprise of an individual chief, is beyond
the reach even of conjecture. The date fixed upon for the com
mencement of the city is, of course, perfectly valueless in its
p. M. PAPERS i 57 397

462 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

precision " (Chambers' P^ncyclopasdia) . u According to Varro the
city of Rome was founded B. C. 753, but Cato places the event
four years later . . . The day of its foundation was the 21st of
April, which was sacred to the rural goddess Pales. There seems
to be some uncertainty whether Romulus gave his name to the
city or derived his own from it, but those who ascribe to the city
a Grecian origin .... assert that Romulus and Roma are both de
rived from the Greek word for ' strength.' The city, we are
assured, had another name which the priests were forbidden to
divulge ; but what that was it is now impossible to discover.1
There is, however, some plausibility in the conjecture that it was
Pallanteum, and from the great care with which the Palladium, or
image of Pallas, was preserved, it seems probable that the city
was supposed to be under the care of that deit}*. If this conjec
ture be correct, the Pelasgic origin of Rome cannot be doubted,
for Pallas was a Pelasgic deity. . . .

"The institution of the vestal virgins was older than the city itself
and was regarded by the Romans as the most sacred part of their
religious system. In the time of Numa there were but four . . .
their duty was to keep the sacred fire on the altar in the temple
of Vesta from being extinguished and to preserve a certain sacred
pledge on which the very existence of Rome was supposed to de
pend.2 What this pledge was we have no means of discovering ;
some supposed that it was the Trojan Palladium ; others, some
traditional mystery brought by the Pelasgi from Samothrace.
One fact is certain : that the Palatine is regarded as the oldest
portion of the city and the original site and centre of the embryo
mistress of the world and mother of cities, the Roma quadrata,
fragments of whose walls have been brought to light.3

u Tradition relates that it was on the Palatine that Romulus
marked out the Pomojrium, a space around the walls of the city, on
which it was unlawful to erect buildings . . . The next ceremony
was the consecration of the comitium, or place of public assem
bly. A vault was built under ground and filled with the firstlings
of all the natural productions that sustain human life and with

1 It would be interesting to learn whether the Arabian title Om-al-kara, " the
mother of cities," has ever been connected with Roma by investigators.

2 It is recalled here that the twin brothers Romulus and Remus are supposed to
have been the issue of the union, in the temple of Mars, of the vestal virgin Rhea
Silvia with a personification of the god Mars.

3 The recurrence of the square plan, employed in Babylonia and Egypt (see pp.
333 and 369), is noteworthy.

898

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 463

earth which each foreign settler had brought from his home. This
place was called JfuMlus" (History of Rome, Goldsmith's abridg
ment, 21st edition, by W. C. Taylor, p. 13).

This fact furnishes evidence that the sacred central cosmical
vault over which a mound may have been formed by the earth con
tributed from different quarters, was regarded as a synopsis of
all, and that sanctity was also attached to the central place of as
sembly where justice was administered at regular intervals, weekly
markets were held and religious rites were celebrated.1

Tradition relates that, after the foundation of the central "Mun-
dus," the founder of Rome established the Sabine town which
occupied the Quirinal and part of the Capitoline hills. "The name
of this town most probably was Quirium . . . the two cities were
united on terms of equality and the double-faced Janus, stamped
on the earliest Roman coins was probably a symbol of the double
state." It is significant to find not only that Janus was some
times depicted with four faces instead of two, in which case he
was called Janus Quadrifrontis, but that references are also made
to the female form of Janus = Jana, the latter being identified
with Diana. Considering that it was from Quirium that the Roman
youths obtained Sabine wives by force, which had been refused to
their entreaties, it would seem as though, originally, as elsewhere,
the men and women of the community resided separately and that
stringent laws regulated their intercourse. In other ancient com
munities it has been shown how the separation of the sexes created
in time an upper and lower class, and to the same origin may per
haps be assigned the most remarkable feature of the Roman con
stitution, i. e. the two- fold division of the people into patricians
and plebeians.

While the foregoing statements throw light upon the ideas asso
ciated with the Middle and show that Rome was originally a dual
state, the following facts furnish indications of a quadruplicate
division. At an early period Rome was laid out and enclosed in
a square, the population u:as divided into four tribes and men-

1 In course of time each Roman ci vitas, or political canton or community, possessed
such " a centre, which was termed capitolium, /. e. 'the height, from being originally
fixed on a height or hill-top, corresponding to the Greek akra. Round this strong
hold of the canton, which formed the nucleus of the earliest Latin towns, houses
sprang up, which were in turn surrounded by the oppidum or the urbs (ring- wall
connected with urbus, curvus, orbis) ; hence, in later times, oppidum and urbs be
came, naturally enough, the recognized designations of town and city."— Cham
bers' Encyclopaedia.

899

4G4 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

tion is made of u the state, under Servius Tullius, being an entity
divided into four cities and twenty-six tribes . . . this being strictly
a geographical division analogous to our parishes. The division
of the city into four tribes continued until the reign of Augus
tus (B. C. 29) . . ."i

The four chief religious corporations of ancient Rome, mentioned
in the Century Dictionary, evidently correspond to this fourfold
division and it is specially stated of one of these corporations that it
was represented and governed by a group consisting of seven "• sep-
temvir epuloues " who formed a " septemvirate."

The number of septemvirs corresponded to the " seven hills "
which were enclosed by Tullus Hostilius, and it is stated that there
were seven places of worship in ancient Rome. It is interesting
to find that between A. D. 193 and 211, Septimius Severus, a
native of an ancient Punic colony in Africa, erected a Septizonium
(an edifice consisting, like the Babylonian zikkurat, of seven sto
ries) on the Palatine, where a large temple of Apollo had previ
ously been built.2

Although it is thus evident that, at different periods, seven- fold
division was carried out in ancient Rome, it was not until after the
reign of Theodosius, according to some authors, that the seven-

1 Diocletian (A. D. 292) revived dual rulership and quadruplicate organization by
instituting the quadruple hierarchy of two Augusti and two Cajsars. The prevalence
of quadruplicate division with current cosmical conceptions is shown by the follow-
ingtext: "The usual form of taking an augury was very solemn; the augur ascend
ing a tower, bearing in his hand a curved stick called a litus. He turned his face to
the east and marked out some distant objects as the limits within which he would make
his observations and divided mentally the enclosed space into four divisions .... He
next . . . prayed and offered sacrifices . . . ." " We learn from . . . the augur Cicero
that while the Romans only had four divisions to their heavens-templum, the Etrus
cans had sixteen, obtained by bisecting and rebisecting the four angles" (O'Neil,.
p. 43:?).

2 The cult of Ishtar = Isis, associated with mystery and of Serapis = Osiris, had
been instituted in Rome by Domitiau (A. D. 82) who caused temples to be built for
them. Curious instances of the spread of the cults of other countries throughout
the Roman empire have come under my personal notice. In the Museum at Bonn,
Germany, there is a Roman tombstone the inscription on which consists of a wheel'
above the name Jovis, the association of Jove with the wheel, being very remark
able and significant in connection with the present subject.

At Mines in the South of France, a curious statue of Mithra was found in the
ruins of the Roman city. It consists of a Hermes, surmounted by a hairy, dog-like
face. A great serpent is wound around the hermes, the signs of the zodiac being
sculptured between the coils. In the light of the present investigation the mean
ing of the symbolical statue seems too obvious to require explanation. It is strange
that the recollection of seeing this statue at the age of nine with my father, who
pointed out and explained the signs of the zodiac to me, is one of the most vivid,
of my childhood.

900

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 465

day period was imported from Alexandria and the term "septimana"
adopted in Rome. '• Previously to this Rome had counted her
periods by eight days, the eighth day itself being originally called
Nundinal — a term later applied to the whole cycle" (Cham
bers' Encyclopaedia). Noting that the period of eight (=2X4)
days accords with the quadruplicate system applied to the primi
tive state, I draw attention to the numerical classification of the
citizens of Rome employed during centuries, wrhich so curiously
agrees with the system carried out in Peru at a widely sundered
period (see p. 141).

Ten households formed a gens (clan or family) ; ten clans or
one hundred households formed a curia or wardship ; and ten ward
ships, or one hundred clans, or one thousand households formed
a populus, civitas or community. As it is stated that, atone time,
Rome consisted of four cities, it is obvious that the above numbers,
quadrupled, constituted the state which thus included forty ward
ships, four hundred gentes and four thousand households. As each
gens possessed a chieftain, endowed with paternal authority over
its members, there must, at one time, have been four hundred of
these u patricians," whose number is thus found to correspond to
the Greek " Council of 400 " and curiously enough to the "four hun
dred Tochtli" or governors of the ancient Mexican commonwealth.
A noteworthy feature of the attempt to institute the Decemvirate
in Rome (5th century B. C.) was the arrangement that the ten
chosen men exercised office in prescribed rotation for one day, each
ruling, in consequence, for thirty-six days in the year which, like
the Egyptian, then consisted of three hundred and sixty days and
of an epact of five days. The assignment of a day to each chief
tain finds its parallel not only in Assyria but also in ancient
America (see p. 181).

In connection with the Roman communal organization, attention
is drawn to what appears to be a remarkable survival of an ex
tremely ancient and natural mode of distinguishing the wardships.
It is well known that, according to tradition, the republic of Siena,
Italy, was founded at a remote period "by the sons of Remus, the
twin brother of Romulus." The following facts prove that, to this
day, certain features of its social organization exhibit an affin
ity to that of primitive Rome. •' Siena, from the earliest da}*, has
been divided into contrade or parishes. Each contrada has its spe
cial church, generally of great antiquity, and each contrada is

1)01

466 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

named after some animal, or natural object, these names being
symbolical of certain trades or customs. There are now the wolf,
giraffe, owl, snail, tower, wave, goose, tortoise, etc., in all seventeen.
Each has its colors, heralds, pages, music, flags ; all the mediae
val paraphernalia of republican subdivision" (Frances Eliot,
Diary of an idle woman in Italy i, p. 19).

The employment of the names of animals and natural objects
as distinctive marks for a wardship offers a curious analogy to the
American institution of tribal names' and totems.

The circumstance that, in remotest times, the king of Rome, the
acknowledged metropolis or mother city, was accompanied, on pub
lic occasions, by twelve lictors or administrators of justice, each
carrying the axe tied in a bundle of rods, shows that, at one time,
the government was administered by thirteen individuals — a method
we shall find again in ancient Ireland and Scandinavia. The his
tory of Rome reveals that the different variants of governmental
scheme adopted, one after the other, under influences emanating
from Greece and Egypt, were reared upon the familiar universal
plan. The most striking instance of this is, however, furnished
by the details preserved of the groundwork on which Constantine
founded (A. D. 330) the city he intended to be the capital of a
universal empire, and named the New or Second Rome.

Historians relate that the peninsula of Byzantium offered strik
ing resemblances to the sites of Carthage and Rome. The design
of Constantine embraced the entire peninsula with the seven hills
upon it. " On foot, with a lance in his hand, professing to be
under the guidance of divine inspiration, the emperor directed
the line which was traced as the boundary of the destined capital."
... "In imitation of Rome at that period, the city was divided
into 2 X 7 3= fourteen wards (regiones). ... Its centre was
marked by a column . . . surmounted by a bronze colossus of
Apollo. The church of S. Sophia, built on the site of an ancient
temple of Wisdom, was subsequently dedicated to ' the Holy
Eternal Wisdom' by Justinian. In the court called the Forum
Augusteum, one side of which was formed by the palace and the
other by the church, stood the Milliarium Auretim, not, as at
Rome, a gilt marble pillar, but a spacious edifice, the centre from
which all the roads of the empire were measured and on the walls
of which the distances to all the chief places were inscribed ... In
the new reunited empire quadruple division was maintained, the
1)02

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 467

empire being divided into four parts, each forming a praetorian
prefecture under a prretorian. prefect, who, being the lieutenant of
the emperor, ruled over the governors and people of the province
with absolute power. The four prefectures were subdivided into
thirteen dioceses, each governed by a vice- prefect named vicarius,
the total number of dioceses being fifty-two."

This system of numeration is of particular interest as it is not
only identical with the system of a modern pack of cards, the
origin of which is unknown, but is also the same as the Mexican
year cycle (seep. 297). Vestiges of sevenfold organization are
traceable in the appointment by Constantine, of " seven ministers
of the palace" who exercised "sacred" functions about the
person of the emperor, and the division of all Gaul into seven
provinces placed under the governorship of the Vicar of the Seven
Provinces. In conclusion I venture to point out that the four-
storied amphitheatre of Vespasian (A. D. 71), the Pantheon of
Agrippa (A. D. 23) and the Mausoleum of Hadrian (A. D. 138)
appear to have a cosmical character, the first having been planned
to hold the entire population of Rome, around a central space in
which, originally, the circling chariot simulated the circuit of the
celestial ' plaustrum ' or ' carro ' =. chariot, the Latin name given
to Ursa Major.

While, on public festivals, the amphitheatre must have appeared
as a synopsis of the whole empire and may also have been origi
nally used for nocturnal, religious or political assemblages, the
great Pantheon enclosing the images of twelve deities, may well
have been a conscious attempt to represent the all-embracing Cos
mos of Egyptian and Greek philosophy, the framed view of the
heaven, seen through the central opening in the dome, being the
symbol of the "hidden and invisible god," of the initiated. To
Hadrian, who visited Egypt twice and was undoubtedly acquainted
with the idea of Plato's Cosmos or Theos, the idea of building a
great circular structure in the centre of which he would be laid to
rest, would naturally have suggested itself. Passing from a con
sideration of the buildings which, with the pyramids, appear to be
among the grandest exponents of natural philosophy and religion
ever reared by the hand of man, and clearly appear to have been
planned under the direct influence of Egyptian and Greek philoso
phy, let us briefly glance at the mode in which the identical funda
mental scheme was perpetuated among some northern peoples.

903

468 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

ANCIENT IRELAND, BRITAIN AND WALES.

It is a remarkable fact that, in ancient Ireland, we find distinct
traces of a state, founded on the same crystallized artificial system
that has been found at the basis of the most ancient civilizations
of the world. "There is really no authentic history of Ireland
before the introduction of Christianity into the country, bat there
are some genuine traditions which appear based upon truth, because
they accord with and explain the peculiar customs which were found
to prevail in the island at the time of the English invasion. These
traditions declare, that the original Celtic inhabitants were subdued
by an Asiatic colony, or at least by the descendants of some East
ern people at a very remote period ; they aver that the conquerors
were as inferior to the original inhabitants in numbers as they
were superior in military discipline and the arts of social life ; they
describe the conquest as a work of time and trouble and assert
that, after its completion, an hereditary monarchy and hereditary
aristocracy were for the first time established in Ireland. . . ."

"At some unknown period Ireland was divided into five kingdoms,
Ulster, Leinster, Counaught, Minister and Meath . . . the latter
being the property of the paramount sovereign . . . ." (W. C.
Taylor, History of Ireland, 1837).

John O'Neil cites " the very oldest Irish books, according to
which two brothers, the leaders of the Milesian colonization,
divided Ireland into Northern and Southern kingdom." Elsewhere
he relates how a prince of the north had been united in marriage
to the princess of the south and that " the mythical Niall-Navi-
giallach of the nine treasures had had a Northern king for father
and a Southern princess for mother." Besides this subdivision
which strikingly recalls the ancient Egyptian, O'Neil brings out the
remarkable fact that definite positions in relation to each other
and the cardinal points were assigned to the five Irish kings and tells
us that " we have a fuller and later division when, in the central
hall, the miodh-chuarta of Tara, the king of Erinn sat in the cen
tre, with his face to the East, the king of Ulster being at his
North, the king of Minister at his South, while the king of Leinster
sat opposite to him and the king of Connaught behind him " (op.
cit. i, 463).

I refer the reader to his extremely interesting comparison (i, p.
369) of ancient Ireland being "an Irish instance of a Chinese
004

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 469

* Middle Kingdom,' " and to the data given in connection with the
great hall of Tara, which was called Meath or Mid-court, Miodchu-
arta( pronounced Micorta), and the Northern hill of Miodhchaoinn
(or Midkena), guarded by Miodhchaoinn and his three sons, the
guardians of the hill being thus four in all. O'Neil also refers to
1 ' the great idol or castrum of Kilair . . . which was surrounded
by twelve smaller ones and was called the stone and umbilicus of
Hibernia and, as if placed in the midst and middle of the land,
'medio et meditullio' . . . ." uMeath itself, where this Kilair navel
stood, was anciently the central one of the five divisions of Ireland
and is called Media by Giraldus Cambrensis, . . . and connected
with the words medi-tullium and medi-tullus." The legend states
that '* the castrum of Kilair and the stones around it were trans
ported by Merlin to Stonehenge and 4 set up in the same order.' >n
•" At Mag Slecht was the chief idol of Ireland, called Cenn Craich
(Mound-chief) covered with gold and silver, and twelve other idols
about it, covered with brass" (O'Neil, p. 273).

u The five Irish kingdoms were again subdivided into several
principalities inhabited by distinct ' septs,' each ruled by its own
carfinuy or chieftain. The obedience of these local rulers or to-
parchs to the provincial sovereign was regulated, like his to the
general monarch, by the powers that he possessed for enforcing
authority .... The succession to every degree of sovereignty
was regulated by the law of tanistry, which limited heredity right
to the family but not to the individual .... Each district was
deemed the common property of the entire sept ; but the distri
bution of the several shares was entrusted to the toparch

The lower orders were divided into freemen and hetages, or as
they were called by the Normans, villanis. The former had the
privilege of choosing their tribe ; the latter were bound to the soil
and transferred with it in any grant or deed of sale."

Ruined groups of buildings, consisting of seven sanctuaries or
churches, situated around a round, high tower, usually with four
windows near the top, opening to the cardinal points, exist in va
rious parts of Ireland, the Seven Churches in County Wicklow
being the most famous example. The cosmical character of the

1 The curious association of the number seven with Stonehenge in gypsy folk-lore,
•which possibly contains vestiges of Druidical folk-lore, is brought out by R. G. Hali-
burton in his paper on " Gypsy folk-lore as to Stonehenge," to which I refer the
reader.

905

470 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

round towers has been set forth by John O'Neil, to whose work I
refer the reader. According to my views the groups testify to the
establishment, at one time, of several septarchies in Ireland, the
geographical centres of which, as in Assyria and elsewhere, were
marked in this case by the cosmical round tower, figuring the axis
or spindle, around which each sept built its council house, for re
ligious and political assemblies.1 In connection with such it is in
teresting to read what Caesar says of the priests and judges of
Gaul, which was organized into seven provinces, as late as at the
time of Constantine : "These Druids held a meeting at a certain
time of the year in a consecrated place in the country of the Car-
nutes [modern Chartres] which country is considered to be in the
centre of all Gaul." It is well known that anterior to the Roman
Conquest there existed in Britain a long-established, seven-fold
state, governed by seven kings, compared by John Speed (1630) to
seven crowned pillars.

The kingdom of Mercia included the counties in the centre of
the kingdom and is said to have been founded by Crida or Creoda.
The central and chief ruler of Britain was styled Bretwalda. It is
well known that Stonehenge, which is associated in folk-lore with
the number seven, is situated in the heart of the plain region of
England and is supposed to have been the seat of central religion
and government.2

It is moreover acknowledged by Knight that the ancient Britons
were a people who evidently had some great principle of associa
tion in their religion as in their industry. The familiar fact, that
at one period the ancient Kent. Cantium, was governed by four
kings, also styled u the four princes of Cantii," furnishes an indi
cation that quadruplicate division was also known to the ancient
Britons.

1 In the case of Mayapan, Yucatan, the practical use of analogous council-houses is
described (p. '209). The Irish tower and seven houses are remarkably in accord with
the scheme of organization used in ancient Greece where, at Tenos, each gens was
known as "a tower" and each gens, as well as its town, was divided into at least
seven parts (p. 456).

2 John Speed relates that one of the kings of Kent, named Catigera, " was interred
upon a plain where his monument vulgarly called ' citscotehouse,' consisted of four
stones pitched in the manner of the stonehenge." It is tempting to see in the four
stones " pitched" around the grave, the underlying thought of a resting-place in the
cosmical centre, of the symboli/ed four quarters, and to view the prehistoric crosses
of Ireland and Scotland as emblematic of the Middle and Four Quarters, associated
with secret pole-star and cosmical cult and employed as symbols of time and of quad
ruplicate government.

00(5

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 471

A few instructive facts concerning Welsh Druidism may be ap
propriately cited here.

Morien has pointed out that the Druidic Celi Ced corresponds
to Ameii-Ra, the Egyptian Hidden Sun. According to Welsh
system the universe was born of Celi-Ced, a dual power, Celi
being the masculine and Ced the feminine principle. Ceridwen is
termed the Welsh Isis, and her name translated as "the produc
ing woman." Celi is invariably represented as hidden, the three
Hus representing him in manifestation.

"The three Hus are : Hucylch y Cengant = the Hu of the circle
of infinitude ; Hu cylch y Sidydd = the Hu of the circle of the
zodiac and Hu yn Nghnawd = Hu incarnate. The latter was in
carnate in the Arch Druid. He, standing in the middle of the
Gorsedd circle, where the triple life lines met, implied by his action
that the three emanations which had their root in the dual Ced-
Celi, focussed themselves in him. He stood facing the east where
the sun rises " (cf. the ceremonial position assumed by the king
of Erin in council and that of the Roman augur on drawing his
templum). "The name for the physical sun was Huan, translated
as ' the abode of divinity.' ' " The Druidic bards of N. Wales
worshipped Beli."1

In Welsh legend a god named Peredur Paladye Hir (of the long
spear or pal) is associated with his brother, both sons of Eliffer,
one of the thirteen princes of the north. Peredur is one of seven
brothers ; there were seven profound mysteries of Druidism, i. e.
seven divisions of the reverberations of the Word, emanating from
Ced, and the seven Tattaras or seven rays.

SCANDINAVIA.

According to the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlesson, whose
opinion was the re-echo of ancient traditional beliefs, Odin and his
eight sons and four companions, twelve in all, were earthly kings
and priests of a sacerdotal caste, who had emigrated from Asia —
perhaps from Troy — and who conquered and ruled over various
parts of Scandinavia and Northern Germany where, after their
death, they were regarded by the people as deities (Chambers'
Encyclopaedia).

O'Neil states "that Odin was named Mith-Odinn (Mid-Odin?)

1 Celi-Ced sind the cult of the wren. Theosophic.al review, June lf>, 1900.

907

472 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

by Saxo Grammaticus," and quotes the following: " Odin n died
in bis bed, in Sweden, and when he was near his death he made
himself be marked with the point of a spear and said he was going
to Godheim" (Ingliga Saga). "The twelve godes or diarordrot-
nar of Odin were obviously cognate to our god as a name of a
deity. The}7 (or the priests who represented them) directed sacri
fices and judged the people, and all the people served and obeyed
them" (O'Neil i, p. 76).

A strange reality is given to Odin and his twelve " godes," when
it is realized that at Mora, near Upsala, Sweden, there exists the
ancient stone throne on which the ancient kings of Sweden were
crowned and this central stone is surrounded by twelve lesser
stones, just as the Irish u Mound-chief " was surrounded by
twelve idols.

While the above facts suffice to indicate that, in remotest antiq-
ity, the government of the state was vested in one supreme and
twelve minor chiefs, the following brief extracts from the Ecldas
reveal the cosmical beliefs of the Norsemen : "In the cold north
existed Niflheim in the middle of which wras a well from which
sprang twelve rivers. In the south existed the warm Muspelheim.
There was a contention between both of these worlds. . . . The
union of heat and cold produced Oergelmer or Chaos, and the first
human being, Ymir. The revolving eye of the Norse world-mill
stone was directly above Oergelmer and through it the waters
flowed to and from the great fountain of the Universe waters."
Ymir drew his nourishment from four streams of milk proceeding
from the mythical cow Aedhumla. Subsequently he was slain by
three divine brothers who carried his body to the middle of Gin-
nungagap, and formed from it the earth and the heavens
of his skull they formed the heavens, at each of the four corners
of which stood a dwarf, viz : Austri at the East, Vestri at the west,

Northri at the north and Suthri at the south When

heaven and earth were formed, the chief gods or Oesir, of whom
there were twelve, met in the Centre of the world and built Mid-
gardr or Asgard, the yard, city or stronghold of the Middle and of
the Asen — the gods. It was situated on the Himinbiorg, or Hill
of Heaven, on the summit of which was the ash-tree, Yggdrasil,
whose branches spread over the whole world and tower over the
heavens."

The following is from the prose Edda : "Then the sons of
908

EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS. 473

Bor built in the middle of the universe the city called Asgard,
where dwell the gods and their kindred, and from that abode irork
out so many wondrous tilings both on earth and in the heavens above
it. There is in that city a place called Hlidskjalf, and when Odin
is seated there upon his lofty throne, he sees over the whole world."

In the Eddas we find evidences that while Odin or All-fader
was the ruler of heaven, his powerful son Thor was " the ruler of
Thrudheim and drove through the world in a chariot and became
the supreme god."

The following facts, taken from Mr. Allen's i; Star-names," es
tablished the association of Thor with Polaris and the Ursse.
" In ancient times the northern nations termed Ursa Major ' the
wagon of Odin, Woden or Wuotan, the father of Thor.'1 The
Danes, Swedes and Icelanders also knew it as Stori Vagn, the
Great Wagon and as Karl's Vagn ; Karl being Thor, their chief
god of whom the old Swedish Rhyme Chronicle of Upsala says
'•. . . The god Thor was the highest of them. He sat naked as a
child, seven stars in his hand and Charles' Wain."

The " throne of Thor " or " Smaller Chariot." was the name giv
en to Polaris (Ursa Minor) by the early Danes and Icelanders and
their descendants still call it the " Litli Vagn," the little wagon.
The Finns, apparently alone among the northern nations of Eu
rope in this conception, named Ursa Minor, Vaha Otawa, the Little
Bear. They, however, termed Polaris, Taehti, "the star at the top
of the heavenly mountain."

It is striking how clearly, in Scandinavia, the Middle is asso
ciated with a sacred mountain and tree, the world axis, a heavenly
city, an enthroned central god, and with Polaris, Ursa Major and
the idea of eternal circumpolar rotation expressed by the wain
eternally wheeled around the throne of Thor. To any one imbued
with the ideas set forth above, the signification of the Scandina
vian, Druidic, New Year festival, the name for which was " the
wheel " (yule, yeol, yeul, hjol, hiugl, hjul), must clearly appear as
the date on which the complete circuit of the Urso3 around the

i Light is thrown upon the possible conception of Ursa Major as Thor's wagon and
the most primitive form of chariots in general by the archaic chariot of state used,
to this day, in Corea and formerly in Japan. It is one-wheeled and the seat, destined
for one person, is placed high above the single wheel and rests upon two long poles,
the ends of which project in front and behind. Four men are required to support
and push this chariot of state, a fine example of which lias lately been secured for
the Museum of Salem, Mass., by Prof. E. S. Morse.

909

474 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

pole, was ceremonially registered. It is obvious that this could
best be expressed by a circle being drawn around the swastika or
cross, to which the fourth arm would be added, completing thus
the registration of the four seasons, marked by the opposite posi
tions assumed by the Ursse at nightfall. It is well known that the
wheel-cross, swastika, triskeles and S-figure constitute, with the
winding serpent and the tau, named Thor's hammer, the main sym
bols of ancient Scandinavia (see fig. 13, p. 29 and fig. 38, p. 119). I
venture to point out how obviously Thor's hammer symbolizes the
union of the Above and Below, the heaven represented by the hor
izontal line resting on the perpendicular support, symbolizing the
sacred pole, column, mountain and tree intimately associated with
Polaris, the world axis.

As a suggestion only, I venture to point out how, the old Norse
name for star being tjara and for tree = tar, the role of the tree
in Druidic cult would be fully accounted for, the initiated only
being aware that it was but a rebus symbol of the secret or hidden
star-god Polaris.

It can readily be seen how natural or artificial elevations and
erected stones, trees, staffs or poles must have been used as means
of determining the positions of the Ursse at the public celebration
of the Yule festival and that the ceremony of kindling of new fire
was observed at the time when the *' wheel" was supposed to be
gin its new annual revolution.

Reflection clearly shows that pole-star worship must have taken a
stronger hold upon the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia and their
descendants, the seafaring Vikings, than upon any other nation.
We are compelled to admit that the recognition that Polaris formed
the centre of axial rotation and the middle of the sky, would have
impressed itself most profoundly upon observers stationed in the
latitude where winter darkness prevailed and the pole-star ap
peared to be nearly overhead. Under such conditions the associa
tion of the opposite positions of the Septentriones with directions
in space, i. e., the cardinal points, would be most striking.

What is more : the re-appearance of the sun, after the long dark
ness of a northern winter, must have established the idea of a
fixed relationship between certain positions of Ursa Major and
the solstitial position of the sun. It may indeed be said that the
observation of the solstices and equinoxes was forced upon the
inhabitants of the north as nowhere else on the globe and that it
910

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 475

may perhaps be therefore designated as the birthplace of primitive
astronomy.

The origin of the idea of an all-pervading duality and the chains
of association which linked Light and the Sun to air and water,
and to the male element, whilst Darkness and the Nocturnal
Heaven became connected with earth, fire and woman, are clearly
accounted for in the circumpolar regions only, where the year di
vides itself into a period of light in which independent and roam
ing out-door life was possible, and a period of darkness during
which family life, in underground fire-lit dwellings, was compul
sory. If fathomed, the mind of the Eskimo to-day may possi
bly reveal the germs of identical associations of ideas, for it would
seem as though existence in the polar regions would infallibly stamp
them indelibly upon the consciousness of all living creatures, until
they unconsciously pervaded their entire being and even affected
the structural organization of the human brain.1

The tendency to believe that the human race must have spent
its infancy near the pole and received there an intellectual stamp,
which could not have been conveyed to it so clearly in any other
latitude, is undoubtedly encouraged by the opinion of various au
thorities, that " all forms of life must have originated at the pole,
this having been the first habitable portion of our world." This
view is exhaustively treated in William Fairfield Warren's " Par
adise Found, the cradle of the human race at the North Pole"
(Boston, 1885), to which I refer the reader and which contains
much valuable data which I would have incorporated in the present
investigation had I had earlier access to the volume. It would seem
as though Warren's conclusions were in perfect accord with the
conclusions arrived at by some leading palaeontologists, geologists
and botanists, concerning the distribution of life on the globe.
These are conveniently summarized in the article on " Distribution"
in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, from which the following detached
excerpts are made for the benefit of the reader.

" The general result arrived at is that the great northern conti-

1 It is with keenest interest that I look forward to learning, from the distinguished
archaeologists of Sweden, among whom I have the honor of having highly-esteemed,
personal friends, how far their observation and deeper knowledge lead them to en
tertain views I have advanced concerning the origin of the swastika and the influence
of pole-star worship upon the developmentof primitive religion and social organiza
tion. It is from them that I expect information as to the relation of the prehistoric
inhabitants of Scandinavia to the ancient centres of civilization which have been
discussed.

911

476 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

nents represent the original seat of mammalian life and the regions
of its highest development. . . . The tertiary fauna of North
America, compared with that of Europe, exhibits proofs of a former
communication between the two northern continents both in the
North Atlantic and North Pacific, but always, probably, in rather
high latitudes. This is indicated both by the groups which appear
to have originated in one continent and then to have passed across
to the other and also by the entire absence from America of many
important groups which abounded in Europe (and vice versa) in
dicating that the communication between the two hemispheres was
always imperfect and of limited duration . . . On the other
hand, the marked continuity of the Northern Flora (with only
a gradual east and west change in the arctic regions, but with an
increased divergency southwards) requires it to be treated as a
whole, although it has long been divided into that of the old and
new world by the severance of North America from Northern Asia
and by the barrier to an interchange of vegetation in the upheaval
of the Rocky Mountain range. The old and new world divisions
of the flora which, no doubt, began to diverge from the mere in
fluence of distance, have now had that divergence immensely
increased by isolation. . . . Large American genera (of the
intermediate flora) have sent off offsets into Eastern Asia which,
gradually diminishing in number of species and sometimes slightly
modifying their character, have spread over the whole of Asia and
invaded almost every part of Europe. . . . With regard to
the arctic alpine flora, Hooker found that, estimating the whole
arctic flora at 762 species, arctic East America possessed 379 of
which 269 are common to Scandinavia. Of the whole flora 616
species are found in arctic Europe and of these 586 are Scandi
navian and this leads Hooker to the striking observation that ' the
Scandinavian flora is present in every latitude of the globe and
is the only one that is so.' According to Bentham, Scandinavia,
which wrould, according to older rules, have been termed the centre
of creation for the arctic regions, may now be termed the chief
centre of preservation within the arctic circle owing, perhaps, to
its more broken conformation and partly to that warmer climate
. wrhich was, during the glacial period a means of preser
vation of some colder species which were everywhere expelled or
destroyed. . . . We may infer that, towards the close of the
Tertiary epoch, the continuous circumpolar land was covered with
912

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 477

a vegetation also largely composed of identical plants, but adapted
to a warmer climate. As the climate became less warm there
would commence a migration southwards which would result in
the modified descendants of these plants being now blended with
the vegetation of central Europe and the United States. As the
glacial period gradually advanced, the tropical plants will have re
treated from both sides towards the equator followed in the rear
by the temperate productions and these by the arctic. When the
climate of the earth again ameliorated, the migration took place
in a reverse direction and in this way mountain ranges became the
havens of refuge for the fragments of the original arctic flora
which were exterminated on the lowlands. An indication of the
great antiquity of the arctic alpine flora is afforded by the fact of
its absence in the comparatively modern volcanic mountains of
France. . . . If it be granted that the polar area was once
occupied by the Scandinavian flora and that the cold of the glacial
epoch did drive this vegetation downwards ... in arctic America
where there was a free southern extension and dilatation
of land for the same Scandinavian plants to occupy, these would
multiply enormously in individuals. . . ."

The following remarkable results of recent botanical research
will be found to be of profound interest to investigators and to
support the foregoing conclusions. Amongst the many important
discoveries of hitherto undescribed species of plants, made by the
distinguished botanists Mr. Stephen Sommier and Dr. Emile Levier
during their expedition in the Caucasus mountains, in 1890, was
that of a species of fungus named Exobasidium discoideum Ell.,
which was found growing on the Rhododendron flaro L. This
fungus was submitted to Prof. P. Magnus of Berlin, who pro
nounced it to be the identical Exobasidium which has been found
growing on the Azalea viscosa L. in New Jersey, U. S. A.
The following is the authoritative statement of Prof. P. Magnus
which appears in Messrs. S. Sommier and E. Levier's Enumera-
torio plantarum caucas : acta horti petropolitani, vol. xvi. St.
Petersburg. 1899.

"The occurrence of the identical species of fungus on two closely
related plants, which respectively grow in the Caucasus and in
North America and are missing in intermediate countries, deserves

our deepest interest These plants are relics of the

Tertiary period, during which North America and Europe still
p. M. PAPERS i 58 913

478 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

formed a continuous floral area. While the plants, on which the
fungus grew, differentiated into two closely related species, in two
at present widely separated but formerly connected radii of dis
tribution, the parasitical Exobasidium remained outwardly un
altered. This is exactly like the case of another fungus, Uromy-
ces glycyrrJiizcKi which I have described and explained in the
* Berichten der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft' (Bd. vn,
1890, S. 377-384). Exobasidium disc, is also a parasitical fungus
which has been growing on the parent form of Rhododendron vis-
cosum and Rhododendron flavum ever since that period when North
America and Europe were continuous and possessed the same flora."
I am also indebted to Professor Magnus and to Dr. Levier for
the following names of closely allied species of plants which are
found in America and Asia only, it being particularly noticeable
that it is in Asia Minor and the Caucasus mountains that the rela
tives of the American species are most frequently met with.

Plat-anus occidentalis North America.

Platanus oriental is Asia Minor.

Liquidambar styraciflua North America.

" " Asia.

Rhododendron viscosum North America.

" Jlavum Caucasus Mts.

Rhododendron maximum North America.

" ponticum Caucasus Mts.

Professor Magnus has, moreover, recently pointed out that the
fungus Uropyxis, which is a widespread American species and
grows in Mexico, has a representative in Manchuria. In his mon
ograph on Uropyxis, Professor Magnus enumerates further species
of fungi which occur in America and Asia only and are missing in
other portions of the world (P. Magnus, Berichten der Deutschen
Botanischen Gesellschaft, Jahrgang 1899. Band xvn, Heft 3).

Referring the reader to Professor Edward S. Morse's trite article,
Was Middle America peopled from Asia? (Appleton's Popular Sci
ence Monthly, November, 1898), I cite, from this, the following
authoritative statements : " From the naturalist's standpoint the
avenues have been quite as open for the eircumpolar distribution of
man as they have been for the eircumpolar distribution of other
animals and plants, down to the minutest land snail and low fungus.
The ethnic resemblances supposed to exist between the peoples of
914

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 479

the two sides of the Pacific may be the result of an ancient distri
bution around the northern regions of the globe."

The very remarkable survival of certain plants and fungi, dating
from the Tertiary period, in two such widely sundered countries as
Asia Minor and North America, certainly finds a curious and strik
ing parallel in the analogy of the cosmical ideas and social organi
zation of Babylonia and Assyria with those of Mexico.

AVhat is more : A cosmical scheme, attributable to a prolonged
observation of natural celestial phenomena, such as could best
have been carried on in circumpolar regions, has been shown to be
as widespread as the Scandinavian flora which " is present in every
latitude and is the only one that is so."

Many of my readers will doubtless be inclined to explain the
identity of cosmical and religious conceptions, social organization,
and architectural plans shown to have existed in the past between
the inhabitants of both hemispheres, as the result of independent
evolution, dating from the period when primitive man, emerging
from savagery, was driven southward from circumpolar regions,
carrying with him a set of indelible impressions which, under the
influence of constant pole-star worship, sooner or later developed
and brought forth identical or analogous results.

Those who hold this view may perhaps go so far as to consider
the possibility that, before drifting asunder, the human race had al
ready discovered, for instance, the art of fire-making and of work
ing in stone, had adopted the sign of the cross as a year-register,
and evolved an archaic form of social organization. To many this
view may furnish a satisfactory explanation of the universal spread
of identical ideas and the differentiation of their subsequently in
dependent evolution.

On the other hand, another class of readers may prefer to think
that, while both hemispheres may have originally been populated
by branches of the same race, at an extremely low stage of intel
lectual development, civilization and a plan of social organization
may have developed and been formulated sooner in one locality
than in another, owing to more favorable conditions and thence have
been spread to both continents by a race, more intelligent and en
terprising than others, who became the intermediaries of ancient
civilization.

The great problem of the origin of American peoples lies far
beyond the scope of the present work and its final solution can

915

480 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

only be obtained at some future day by the joint cooperation of
Americanists and Orientalists. On the other hand certain incon
trovertible facts which throw light upon the question of prehistoric
contact have been coming under my observation during my pro
longed course of study and the presentation of these may advance
knowledge by acting as a stimulus to discussion, inquiry and re
search by learned specialists.

For ready reference I submit the following tabulated record of
the widely sundered countries in which are found, applied to the
governmental scheme, the same cosmical divisions, respectively
consisting of four, seven and thirteen parts, the group being inva
riably associated with the idea of an all-embracing One, constituting
the Four in One, Seven in One and Thirteen in One. It is superflu
ous to add that, in each country enumerated, the existence of more
or less distinct traces of an ancient pole-star worship and the cult
of the sacred Middle, the Above and Below and Four Quarters, i. e.,
the four, seven and thirteen directions in space, have been recorded
in the preceding pages. Important additional facts, acquired by
reference to Hewitt's Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times, to which
my attention was directed by Mr. Stansbury Hagar, and to other
valuable works, will be found included in the following summary.

It would be of utmost assistance to me in my future researches
and I would regard it as a personal favor if specialists would draw
my attention to any deficiencies they may detect, and inform me
of the latest results of their individual investigations bearing upon
the subjects under consideration.

INDIA.

Seven zones, seven directions in space, seven sages.

" The conception of the confederated kingdom formed of six de
pendent and allied states surrounding the seventh ruling state in
the centre." . . . . " It is this conception which is worked out in
the six kingdoms surrounding the central kingdom of Jambudvipa,
into which they divided India. This form of kingdom still survives
in those which form the tributary states of Chota Nagpore, for in
all of these the central province is ruled by the king and those sur
rounding it by his subordinate chiefs . . . ."J (Hewitt, Ruling
Races of Prehistoric Times, p. 256).

1 Hewitt states (p. 90) that, "it was successively immigrating races from the North
.... who placed a king at the head of the confederated provinces formed from their

confederated villages The confederate form of these kingdoms is shown in

910

CIVILIZATIONS IX GENERAL. 481

Four lakes, four rivers, four cosmical divisions, four guardians,
p. 320.

44 In the Gond 4 Song of Lingal,' it is related how, Lingal, hav
ing been slain by the confederacy [of six kingdoms surrounding
seventh], came to life again, and with four new-born Gonds,
founded a new race of Gonds ; taught them to build houses and
to grow millets .... He divided the people into four tribes ....
With these he united the four tribes descended from the Gonds he
had brought down in his first avatar .... These formed the eight
united races of the tortoise-earth .... Lingal placed among them
priests .... who married the new-comers to the daughters of
the previous immigrants .... This . . marks the first stage of
the union of the Kushikas and the Maghadas, the latter being the
race who worshipped the mother-Maga as the sacred alligator,
(Hewitt).

According to the Mahabharata the two races of Kushikas and
Maghadas were united under one king .... This land was called
by Hindu geographers Saka-dvipa, said in the Mataya Purana to
be the land of the mountain whence Indra gets the rain ;" that is
of the mountain called Khar-sah-kurra, Ushidhan and Savkanta.
44 This mountain stood as the meeting point of the two coufeder-

such names as Chuttisgurh which means the 36 gurhs or united provinces. But the
final consolidated form of the pre- Aryan Indian village was that framed by the Ku-
shites. It was they who placed the royal province in the centre of the kingdom

It was on these principles that the government of the Ooraon village of Chota

Nagpore was constructed. The Ooraon form of village government is that which has
been preserved with less alteration from subsequent invaders than that of any other
part of India, for the Ooraons, Mundas, Ho-kals and Bhuyas have always been able,
under the protection of their mountain fastnesses, their political organization and
their natural love of independence, to keep their country free from the interference
of the hated Sadhs, the name by which they call the Hindus. But these people, who
repelled and held themselves aloof from later invaders were of no less foreign origin
than those who succeeded them, for they were all formed by the union with the matri
archal A ustralioids and patriarchal Mongols or Finnish and other Northern stocks,
most of whom were formed into confederated tribes of artisans and agriculturists in
Asia Minor and it was from the southern part of Asia Minor or Northern Palestine,
that the Ooraons came. They themselves say that they came from Western India,
from the land of Ruhidas [the land of the red men], but this means Syria, the country
whose people were called Rotou by the Egyptians, and they were the race who in
troduced barley and plough-tillage into India and;Chota Nagpore. "

Particular attention is drawn to Wylie's statements, quoted on p. 303, concerning
the migration of Israelites to China, via Persia (about A. D. 58-75) and the native
record that Christianity was the ancient religion of Ta-Tsin = Syria. Hewitt's iden
tification of Syria as the " red land " causes the Ooraon and Chinese traditions to
agree in assigning it as the common source of origin of their civilization. According
to Professor Sayce it was "about B.C. 600 that the Phoenicians penetrated to the north
west coant of India," and "tradition brought them originally from the Persian Gulf"
(Ancient Empire of the East, p. 183).

917

482 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

acies of the patriarchal tribes and the matriarchal races .... Each
confederacy is formed by six kingdoms surrounding a seventh or
ruling kingdom in the centre .... This, in the Iranian federation,
is Khavaniras or Huaniratha and in India, Jambu-dvipa, the land
of the Jambu tree."

Hewitt publishes an interesting drawing (reproduced as fig.
73, c), formed "by the union of the four triangles representing
the Southeastern and Northwestern races, who all looked on the
mother mountain of the East, whence Indra gets the rain, as their
national birthplace, where they became united as the Kushite race,
the confederation of civilized man. It represents the Greek cross
and the double dorje or thunderbolt of Vishnu and Indra and also
a map of the Indian races, as distributed at the time of the union.
It also forms, with spaces left open for the parent rivers, .... an
octahedron or eight-sided figure .... and the angles of the tribal
angles form the swastika .... the sign of the rain-god . . . ., the
great Sar of the Phoenicians . . . ." Referring the reader to Hewitt's
interesting discussion of this figure with which he associates the
origin of the swastika, I point out a fact he barely notices, namely
that the figure coincides with the description of Mt. Meru, associ
ated with four lakes, four rivers, four mythical animals and four
guardians (p. 320). It is in connection with the cosmical Middle
Mountain that the foundation of an earthly kingdom on the same
plan becomes significant and the distribution of races figured by
Mr. Hewitt assumes utmost importance. The representation of
the four races by "tribal triangles," is of special interest when
collated with the Egyptian sign for city or state and the pyramid,
the building of which I have several times alluded to as an event
facilitating, symbolizing and commemorating the foundation of a
quadruplicate state (pp. 220 and 221).

ARABIA.

"In the land of Arabia, of the irrigating and building Minyans
and star-worshipping Sabreans, the laud of the Queen of Sheba,
or the number seven (sheba) ... a fresh confederacy was formed,
to rival that of the Kushite mountain of the East . . ." (Hewitt,
p. 291).

It is significant that among the Sabaeans the seven-day period
prevailed.
918

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 483

ASSYRIA.

Seven directions of heaven and earth, seven territorial districts,
seven mountains, seven kings, seven-staged towers, seven year
and day periods, etc., pp. 328, 348 and 358.

Four-god cities, square cities, square four-storied towers, four
cities, four regions or provinces, four-fold power embodied in king
wearing cross, tetrarchies (?).

EGYPT.

Seven classes of people, seven districts, seven-day period, pp.
300 and 375.1

Quadruplicate division of capital and state, four fields of heaven,
p. 372.

Sacerdotal group consisting of 12 -\- 1 — 13 individuals, p. 437.

Division of the country, at one time, into twelve parts (Ast).

CHINA.

Seven Manchurian tribes, p. 302.

Four provinces, four mountains, four seas, p. 286 ; four classes
of seven each, p. 292.

At the summit of the present administration in Pekin, Four
Grand Secretaries, two of whom are Manchus and two Chinese.2

Twelve districts, p. 292.

ANCIENT JAPAN.

The " Seven divine generations," each consisting of a god and
goddess.

Four classes of people, 2 X 4 =. 8 holy quarters, eight great
islands.

Imperial council of twelve divided into the higher council of five
called Golosew = " Imperial Old Men" and the lower council of

1 The recent discovery, by Prof. Flinders Petrie, of the mummy of Aha-Meua, and
of six other kings of the lirst dynasty, suggests the possibility that they may have
reigned simultaneously and constituted a heptarchy (?). Although it would materially
affect Egyptian and Babylonian-Assyrian chronology as it now stands, historians
may yet find it necessary to make a revision taking into deeper consideration the ex
istence of tetrarchies and heptarchies in which a number of kings and subrulers
reigned simultaneously.

2 To assist these four principal secretaries are two under-secretaries, one Manchu
and one Chinese, and a board of ten assistants. Together, these sixteen secretaries
divided between two races, constitute a grand secretariat, which arts as nearly as
possible as the cabinet of the Emperor. (Missions in China. .Tas. S. Dennis, D.D.)

919

484 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

seven members termed Waka Tosiyori = " Junior Old Men"
(Chambers' Encyclopedia). The imperial council, with the em
peror, thus constituted the sacred thirteen.

PERSIA.

Seven divisions of Cosmos, seven regions, seven spirits person
ifying celestial bodies and moral qualities.

Ancient confederacy of Iran consisted of six kingdoms grouped
around the central royal province, " situated under the pole-star,"
and called Kwan-iras or Hvan-iratha, ruled by Susi-nag, the original
father-god of the model state identified with the pole-star, Draconis,
the serpent (Hewitt, op. cit. p. 253), see also Appendix in, list n.

Four- fold rule embodied in king, p. 325. Darius distributed
Persian empire into 4 X 5= 20 satrapies, each including a certain
continuous territory (Grote).

GREECE.

Tenos divided into seven quarters, seven divisions of state.1

1 This association of Tenos with seven-fold division is particularly suggestive be
cause, in Pythagorean philosophy, the number seven was named Parthenos, Athene,
also Apollo, Hermes, Hephaistos, Heracles, Dionysius, Rex, etc. These divinities,
the second and third of which are specially known as patrons of cities, appear in a
new light when it is realized that they were personifications of the number seven
and, by extension, of the seven-fold cosmos, state and city. On p. 449, Plato's division
of the Cosmos is cited. Reference to the history of Greek philosophy shows, however
that the spurious existence of four or five elements had not always been accepted in
Greece, that Thales (640-550 B. C.) had laid down the doctrine of a single eternal,
original element, water or fluid substance, and "assimilated the universe to an or
ganized body or system." Xenophaues (570-480 B. C.) conceived " nature as one un
changeable and indivisible whole, spherical, animated . . . penetrated by or indeed
identical with God." It is usually accepted that it was Empedocles (444 B. C.) who
first formulated the elements, earth, air, fire and water, to which later philosophers
added a fifth, the all-embracing aether.

In aluminous monograph1, Professor L. von Schroeder, of Dorpat, Russia, quoting
the authority of Professor Max MUller, Edward Zeller and Oldenburg, has conclu
sively shown that the five elements, earth, fire, water, air and rcther (Sanskrit aka^a)
already occur in the Brahman as; were taught in the Samkhya ph-ilosophy of the
Kapila and were therefore known in India at least as far back as in the seventh cen
tury B. C. The idea of the five elements is so familiar to the Hindus at the present
time that death is usually spoken of as "a dissolution into the five elements," or a
"going over into the Five." Professor von Schroeder's conclusion is that Pythago.
rean philosophy derived the elemental divisions from India as well as its doctrine of
transmigration, etc., and its science of geometry and of number, mentioning, in sup
port of the latter assertion, the fact that Samkya, the name of the ancient Indian
school of philosophy, signifies " number," that its followers were therefore desig
nated as "philosophers or teachers of numbers." At the same time I point out that,
according to Oliver, "a large portion of Egyptian philosophy and religion was
constructed almost wholly upon the science of numbers and we are assured by

1 Pythagoras uml die Inder, Leipzig, 1S84.

920

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 485

Four tribes,1 four castes, territorial division of Attica into four
parts, institution of tetrarcbies. Thessaly anciently divided into
four tetrarchies. Institution (between 600-560 B. C.) of cycle
or period, marked by the four sacred Olympic games, one of which
took place in one of four cities each year in rotation. Pisistratus
added the quadrennial or greater Panathenaea to the aucient annual
and lesser Panathemea (Grote, History of Greece, vol. 4).

Kircher (Oedip. Egypt, II, 2) that everything in nature was explained on this prin
ciple alone."

Returning to Professor von Schroeder's work I refer the reader to pp. 59 and 65, and
notes for an extremely interesting discussion of the Greek name of the fifth element
that figures in the work of Philolaus, the first who wrote a treatise on the Pythagorean
system of philosophy. The name employed has been deciphered bydifferent authorities
as o\\a<;, 6\xas, xuX^?> °VX°?> oy°Tas, or 6Aa?. The interpretation given is that the
name (the first syllable of which recurs in the word Olympus) signified "that which
moves or carries with it the universe." Professor von Schroeder suggests that the
name may be a corruption of the Sanscrit name for aether, the all-embracing element,
aka9a. I venture to recall here the curious fact that, in ancient Mexico, the symbol,
enclosing the four elements, is always designated as the ollin, a word associated
with the idea of " movement" and of life = yoli.

In his work on the " Pythagorean Triangle," the Rev. G. Oliver gives an extremely
clear account of the Pythagorean philosophy and tells us that its central thought is
the idea of number, the recognition of the " numerical and mathematical relations of

things " "The Pythagoreans seem," says Aristotle, "to have looked upon

number as the principle and, so to speak, the matter of which existences consist;"
and again " they supposed the elements of number to be the elements of existence,
and pronounced the whole heaven to be harmony and number."

Concerning the universe, like many early thinkers, as a sphere, they placed in the
heart of it the central fire to which they gave the name of Hestia, the hearth or altar
of the universe, the citadel or throne of Zeus. Around this move the ten heavenly
bodies the earth revolved on its own axis

They developed a list of ten fundamental oppositions : 1, limited and unlimited;
2, odd and even ; 3, one and many ; 4, right and left ; 5, masculine and feminine ; ft, rest
and motion; 7, straight and crooked; 8, light and darkness; 9, good and evil. . The
union of opposites in which consists the existence of things is harmony; hence the
expression that the whole heaven or the whole universe is harmony." Pointing out
that it is only by a combination of odd and even numbers that a harmonious cycle
is created, I continue to cite from Mr. Oliver's work : " The decade, as the basis of
the numerical system, appeared to them to comprehend all other numbers in itself,
and to it are applied, therefore, the epithets quoted above of number in general.
Similar language is held of the number ' four ' because it is the first square number
and is also the potential decade (1 -(- -2 -f 3 + 4 = 10) . Pythagoras is celebrated as the
discoverer of the holy "Tetraktos " the fountain and root of ever-living nature, or the
Cosmos consisting of Fire, Air, Earth, Water, the four roots of all existing things.

" Number," says Philolaus, "is great and perfect and omnipotent, and the princi
ple and guide of divine and human life. Number then is the principle of order, the
principle on which cosmos or ordered world exists." Without number and the limita
tion which number brings, there would only be chaos and the illimitable, a thought
abhorrent to the Greek mind.

i "The four Ionic tribes were abolished by Kleisthenes (510 B. C.) who created, in
their place, ten new tribes founded on anew principle, independent of thegentesand
phratries. Each new tribe comprised a certain number of demos or cantons with the
enrolled proprietors and residents in each of them. Each tribe had a chapel, sacred
rites and festivals and a common fund for such meetings, in honor of its eponymous

921

48'6 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Twelve tribes formed by Cecrops — represented by twelve chiefs,
-|- Cecrops = thirteen.

It is most interesting to find this division adopted in Plato's de
Legibus, in which it is imagined that three elderly statesmen come
together, belonging respectively to Athens, Crete and Lacedaemon,
to discuss the reestablishment of the depopulated city of Magnesia
in Crete. Aristotle has insinuated that the scheme proposed by
Plato was not original and had been actually realized at Lacedae
mon. Mr. George Burger, the able translator of Bohn's edition
of Plato's Works, in his introduction to vol. v, remarks that, if that
were the case, Plato would never have wasted his time in writing
two elaborate treatises on matters already well known, when it

hero, administered by members of its own choice; and the statues of all the ten
eponymous heroes, fraternal patrons of the democracy, were planted in the most con
spicuous part of the agora of Athens The denies taken altogether, included

the entire surface of Attica. Simultaneously Kleisthenes divided the year into ten
portions called Prytanies,— the fifty senators of each tribe taking by turns the duty of
constant attendance during one prytany and receiving during that time, the title of
The Prytanes. The order of precedence among the tribes in these duties was annu
ally determined by lot Moreover, a farther subdivision of the prytany into

five periods of seven days each and of the fifty tribe-senators into five bodies of ten
each, was recognized ; each body of ten presided in the senate for one period of seven
days, drawing lots every day among their number for a new chairman called Epis-
tates.to whom, during his day of office were confided the keys of the acropolis and the
treasury, together with the city seal." The remaining senators, not belonging to the
prytanizing tribe, might of course attend if they chose, but the attendance of nine
among them, one from each of the remaining nine tribes, was imperatively necessary
to constitute a valid meeting and to insure a constant representation of the collective
people." During those later times — the ekklesia or formal assembly of the citizens,

was convened four times regularly during each prytany (op. cit., vol. iv, p.

138). Special attention is drawn here to the intimate association of the system of
government and the calendar, analogous to the ancient Mexican system.

" The number of inhabitants an ideal state should contain and their numerical or
ganization were evidently subjects of supreme interest to Greek statesmen and phil
osophers. The great work by Aristoteles (384-322 B. C.) on Politics, ' according to
Grote,' was based on a collection made by himself, of 158 different constitutions of
states, which collection has, unfortunately, been lost." " The purpose of comfortable
subsistence for which commonwealths are instituted, requiring a minute subdivision
of labor," Aristotle says, that " in this particular view, the more populous the commu
nity its end will be the more completely attained . . . All things considered he declares
in favour of what would be now deemed a very small commonwealth, consisting of
15,000 or 20,000 citizens "

" In his ' Book of Laws ' Plato intended to delineate a more practicable scheme of
government than that of his first . . . His two republics nearly agree in form, though
they differ in magnitude; the first containing one thousand and the second five thou
sand and forty men bearing arms . . . In his second republic he equalizes estates but
leaves population unlimited ... A regulation directly the reverse of this is intro
duced by one of the most ancient writers on the subject of politics, Pheidon of Corinth,
who limits population, but does not equalize possessions . . . The republic, planned
by the architect Ilippodamus, consisted of ten thousand men, divided into the three
classes of artificers, husbandmen and soldiers. The territory he likewise divides into
three portions: the sacred, destined for the various exigencies of public worship;

922

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 487

would have been sufficient to point out ... the institutions of
Lycurgus as the pattern, if not of a faultless government, at least
of one, that approached the nearest to perfection. Plato might
have replied to the charge made by Aristotle by saying that his
notions were all the better for not being original, for it was thus
shown that, as some of them were practicable, since they had al
ready been put into practice — the rest, which were a reform rather
of existing institutions than the construction of a code perfectly
novel, would be equally practicable if they were submitted to the
same test. In his Protagoras, Plato distinctly states that in Crete
and Lacedsemon a most beautiful philosophy was to be found,
which had been handed down from ancient times . . . Let us now
examine the plan discussed by the three statesmen and submitted

the common, to be cultivated for the common benefit of the soldiers; and the private,
to be separately appropriated by the husbandmen. His laws were also divided into
three kinds . . . ." (Aristotle's Ethics and Politics, John Gillies, LL.D., London
1804).

The knowledge that a republic was actually planned on the scheme of three-fold
division naturally suggests the possibility that the Sicilian coat of arms, the triskeles,
may be a survival of a period when a similar republic existed in Sicily and the year
was divided into three seasons only.1

In Grote's history we learn that after the establishment of the first Athenian democ
racy by Kleisthenes and the victory they gained over the Boeotians and Chalkidiaus,
the Athenians planted a body of four thousand of their citizens as kleruchs (lot-holders)
or settlers upon the lands of the wealthy conquered Chalkidians. This is a system which
we shall find hereafter extensively followed out by the Athenians in the days of their
power; partly with a view of providing for their poorer citizens, partly to serve as
garrison among a population either hostile or of doubtful fidelity. These Attic
kleruchs did not lose their birthright as Athenian citizens : they were not colonists in
the Grecian sense and they are known by a totally different name— but they corre
sponded very nearly to the colonies formally planted out on the conquered lands by
Rome. The increase of the poorer population was always more or less painfully felt

in every Grecian city the numerous kleruchies sent out by Athens, of

which this to Euboeu was the first, arose in a great measure out of the multiplication
of the poorer population, which her extended power was employed in providing for
.... (op. cit. vol. 4, p. 171). The number "four thousand" specially designated is of
particular interest because the letter of the Greek alphabet expressing it was the
delta, in the form of a triangle or pyramid, which also signified " the fourth " or " a
quarter." The ideas suggested by these facts are: that the foundation of such a col
ony would have been commemorated by the building of a pyramid by the conquered
race, the division of labor amongst them preparing the way for the institution of a
social organization on the familiar plan (cf. p. '27-'J). It is only when we reflect what
an admirable means of establishing communal life and activity the mere act of build
ing under direction and guidance must have been, that we appreciate the fine wisdom
of the ancient kings, civilizers and culture-heroes, who were, first of all, master
builders, architects and masons and who began the work of rearing an empire by
directing the erection of a monument which, by its form, expressed the all-pervading
plan of organization.

1 For interesting details concerning the employment and spread of a year of three seasons in ancient
times, see Hewitt, »]>. '-it. Preface XVJ, vol. I.

923

488 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

to them by the anonymous Athenian who, according to Cicero,
Plutarch and Boeckh, was Plato himself.

In the case of "the Magnesiaus, whom a god is again raising
up and settling into a colony ... a divine polity . . ." Plato says :
. . . " It is meet, in the first place, to build the city as much as
possible in the middle of the country. . . . After this to divide it
into twelve parts1 and placing first the temple of Hestia, and Zeus
and Athene, to call it the Acropolis and to throw around a circu
lar enclosure and from it to cut the city and all the country into
twelve parts. But the twelve parts ought to be equalized ....

and the allotments to be five thousand and forty, After

this to assign the twelve allotments to the twelve gods and to
call them by their names and to consecrate to each the portion at
tained by lot and to call it a phyle ; and again to divide the
twelve sections of the city in the same manner as they divided the
rest of the country, and that each should possess two habitations,
one near the centre and the other near the extremity, and thus let

the method end (B. v, C. 14) We ought, in

the first place, to resume the number five thousand and forty
because it had and has now convenient distributions, both the
whole number and that which was assigned to the wards, which
we laid down as the twelfth part of the whole, being exactly four
hundred and twenty. And as the whole number has twelve divis
ions, so also has that of the wards. Now it is meet to consider
each division as a sacred gift of a deity through its following both
the months and revolutions of the universe. (By this is meant, says
Ast, the twelve signs of the zodiac.) Hence that lohich is inhe
rent leads every state, making them holy. . . Some persons indeed
have made a more correct distribution than others, and with

1 "Taylor says that the reason Plato adopted this division is because the number 12,
the image of all-perfect progression, is the product of 3 by 4, both of which numbers,
according to the Pythagoreans, are images of perfection. On the other hand, Ast
conceives that Plato had in mind the division of the country in twelve parts found in
Egypt and elsewhere, and which seems, as may be inferred from other portions of
his work, to have been connected with the division of the year into twelve months,
each under the superintendence of one of the twelve greater gods." To this note I
add the remark that, in B. vi, C. 8, Plato distinctly refers to the twelve tribes as " the
thrice four tribes, recommending that they should appoint thrice four interpreters,"
one for each tribe. It should also lie recalled that Cecrops is said to have employed
the division into twelve and is supposed to have brought it from Egypt. In the pres
ent summary the employment of the same division in other countries can be veri
fied.

It may be of interest to note here that, like the Egyptians, the Greeks divided their
month into 3 decades. The year consequently contained 3 X 12 = 36 decades + 5 days.
924

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 489

better fortune have dedicated the distribution to the gods. But we
now assert that the number five thousand and forty has been
chosen most correctly, as it has all divisions as far as twelve,

beginning from one, except that by eleven ;

. . let us distribute this number ; and dedicating to a god . . .
each portion, and giving the altars .... let us institute monthly
two meetings relating to sacrifices .... twelve according to the

divisions of the wards and twelve to that of the city for

the sake of every kind of intercourse."

It should be noted here that, as in his Republic, Plato provides
his ideal state with female as well as male guardians, and with
priestesses as well as priests, whose duty it was to fulfil sacerdo
tal functions. Special attention is drawn to this point, as in
practice, it naturally signifies a dual government, such as I have
traced in ancient Egypt, Babylonia- Assyria, and also in Mexico
and Peru.

"As regards the number of ... festivals let there

be three hundred and sixty-five ... so that some one of the mag
istrates may always sacrifice there are to be twelve

festivals to the twelve gods from whom each tribe has its name

.... and twelve guardians of the law There

ought to be twelve hamlets, one in the middle of each twelfth part,
and in each hamlet to be selected first, a market place and temples

prepare all the rest of the country by it into thirteen parts

for the handicraftsmen and to cause one portion of these to reside
in the city by distributing this portion among the twelve parts of
the whole city .... to have other persons distributed out of the
city, in a circle around it."

The portions of Plato's work dealing with the appointment of the
governors and guardians of the state and their rotations in office
and imposed tours of inspection, are of such particular interest in
connection with the present comparative research, that I am im
pelled to quote them here.

" Let each (of the twelve) phyles furnish for the year five Rural
Stewards (in all sixty) .... each of whom is to choose twelve
young men .... to the latter let there be allotted portions of
the country during a month .... so that all of them may have

a practical knowledge of every part of the country But

let the governorship and guardianship continue to the guards and
governors for two years, and let those who first obtain by lot their

925

490 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

respective portions, the guard officers, lead out, changing the pZ
of the country constantly by going to the place next in order towards
the right in a circle, and let the right be that which is in the east.
But as the years come around, in the second year, iu order that
the greatest portion of the guards may become acquainted with
the country, not only at one season of the year, but that as many
as possible may know thoroughly in addition to the country, at the
same time what occurs relatively to each spot in the country at
each season, let the officers lead them out again to the left, constantly
changing the place until they go through the second year. In the
third year it is meet to choose other rural stewards and guard

officers as the five curators of the twelve young men

There were to be three city stewards, dividing the twelve parts of

the city into three and five Market- Stewards, to be

chosen from ten elected" . . . -1

It is deeply interesting to consider from the standpoint of com
parative study the principal features of the perfected scheme pro
posed by Plato, in the fifth century B. C., for the establishment of
an ideal colony, which is designated as a "divine polity" or a
" holy land." This is especially the case when we see that Plato
himself states that it is the conformity of the states to the inherent
kuvs of nature, that confers upon it divinity or holiness. It seems
impossible not to recognize that both ideal republics of Plato were
intended to be " celestial kingdoms " or "kingdoms of heaven"
and that he expounded and doubtlessly perfected, an ancient ideal
which had been more or less successfully carried out in different
countries during many centuries before his time.

Having studied the proposed scheme for the foundation of a
new colony of the Greeks, who proudly maintained that " it was
meet that the Greeks should rule barbarians," and pursued a regu-

1 Considering that the employment of silver or gold currency among the nations of
antiquity has been regarded, by some, as a proof of advanced culture, itis interesting
to learn, from the following passage, that, as a result of experience and with wisdom
and foresight, Plato recommended the adoption of different forms of currency in each
different state, in order to avert the dangers resulting from the accumulation of
riches. " A law . . . that no private person be permitted to possess any gold or sil
ver; but that there be a coin for the sake of daily exchange, which it is almost neces
sary for handicrafts to change and for all who have need of such things to pay the
wages due to hired persons, be they slaves or domestic servants. On which account
we say that thei/ in uttt j)osaens coin u-Jiich is of value to themselves, but of no worth amongst
the rest of mankind." It is curious to note how closely the employment of the cocoa
bean, in ancient Mexico and of wampum in North America, as the staple currency,
fulfilled the purpose recognized as desirable, by Plato.

926

CIVILIZATIONS ix <;KXEI:AL. 491

lar system of colonization, let us now obtain an idea of the mode in
which Greeks had previously founded colonies by reading the follow
ing passage from Grote's History of Greece, vol. iv, chap, xxvn :

"Under reign of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, about the middle
of seventh century B.C., Grecian mercenaries were first established
in Egypt and Grecian traders admitted . . into the Nile.1 The
opening of this new market emboldened them to traverse the di
rect sea which separates Krete from Egypt — a dangerous voyage
with vessels which rarely ventured to lose sight of land — and seems
to have first made them acquainted with the neighboring coast of
Libya hence arose the foundation of the important col
ony called Kyrine " about 630 B. C.

kk Thera was the mother-city, herself a colony from Lacedsemon
.... political dissension among its inhabitants .... bad sea
sons, distress and over-population led to the emigration that founded

Kyrene The oekist Battus was selected and consecrated

to work of founding the colony .... From the seven districts into
which Thera ivas divided, emigrants were drafted for the colony, one

brother being singled out by lot from the different families

The band which accompanied Battus was generally supplied with
provisions for one year and was all conveyed in two pentekonters
— armed ships with fifty rowers each. Thus humble was the
start of the mighty Kyrene. After six years residence in one spot
they abandoned it and were conducted to a better site by guides,
saying : ' Here, men of Hellas, is the place for you to dwell, for
here the sky is perforated.' "2 The small force brought over by

1 At the last moment I learn that fragments of JEgean pottery lately found at A by-
do s in tombs of the Egyptian kings of the first dynasty, by Prof. Flinders Petrie are

considered to prove that, "Grecian merchants sailed the seas in 4500 B. C a

conclusion further borne-out by the pictures of vessels with 60 oarsmen, vessels quite
large enough for crossing the Mediterranean, which have been seen on prehistoric
memorials of the oldest inhabitants of Egypt" (Rawnsley). In this connection it is
interesting to learn, from Professor Sayce, that the Phoenician galley was the model
of the Greek one, that it was at Carthage that a ship, with more than three banks of
oars, was first built, and that its pilots steered by the pole star, not, like the Greeks, by
the Great Bear" (Ancient Empires of the East, p. -205).

2 An interesting interpretation of this somewhat obscure sentence is obtained by
collating it with the conception of " the revolving eye of the Norse world mill-stone
which was directly above Oergelmer and through which the waters flowed to and
fro from the great fountain of the Universe mountains " (p. 472). The analogy is
strengthened by the fact that the mountainous region in which Kyrene was situated
has always been noted for its fertility, the water, from the mountains enclosing its
plains, settling in pools and lakes, affording a constant supply, during the summer
months, to the Arabs who frequent it. The feature of KyrOne, most renowned in
antiquity, was its inexhaustible Fountain of Apollo, and travellers describe how. to

492 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Battus was enabled at first to fraternize with the indigenous Lib
yans, — next, reinforced by additional colonists and availing them
selves of the power of native chiefs, to overawe and subjugate
them ....

" The Therrean colonists seem to have married Libyan wives,
whence Herodotus describes the women of Kyrene and Barka as
following, even in his time, religious observances indigenous and
not Hellenic. Even the descendants of the primitive oekist Bat
tus were semi-Libyan We. must bear in mind that the

population of the [Grseco-Libyan] cities was not pure Greek, but
more or less mixed, like that of the colonies in Italy, Sicily or
Ionia . . . Isokrates praises the well-chosen site of the colony of
Kyrene because it was planted in the midst of indigenous natives
apt for subjection and far distant from any formidable enemies.
.... We are then to conceive the first Themean colonists as es
tablished in their lofty fortified post Kyrene, in the centre of Lib
yan Perioeki, till then strangers to walls, to arts and perhaps even
to cultivated land To these rude men the Theneans com
municated the elements of Hellenism and civilization, not without
receiving themselves much that was non-Hellenic in return, and
perhaps the reactionary influence of the Libyan element against
the Hellenic might have proved the stronger of the two had they

not been reinforced by new-comers from Greece About

543 B.C. owing to discontent, etc., the regal prerogative of the
Battiad line was terminated and a republican government estab-

this day, the Bedouin Arabs flock to it when their supply of water and herbage fails
in the interior. Grote states that the same circumstance must have operated in
ancient times to hold the nomadic Libyans in a sort of dependence upon Kyrene
(Grote, op. cit. vol. iv, p. 37).

The realization that an inexhaustible fountain of water meant life to primitive no
madic people, enables us to understand the expression " fountain of life" and the
constant associations of the sacred central mountain with pools of water and streams
flowing in four directions. It is remarkable and highly suggestive how closely the
following topographical details, given by Grote, of the original seat of the Mace
donians (which were in the regions east of the chain of Skardus, north of the chain
which connects Olympus with Pindus and which forms the northwestern boundary
of Thessaly), coincide with the conception of Mt. Meru, for instance.

" Reckoning the basin of Thessaly as a fourth, here are four distinctinclosed plains
on the east side of this long range of Skardus and Pindus, — each generally bounded
by mountains which rise precipitously to an alpine height, and each leaving only
one cleft for drainage by a single river, — the Axius,the Erigon, the Haliakmon and

the Peneius respectively. All four plains . . are of distinguished fertility "

(Grote, op. cit. vol. iv, p. 10). The close vicinity of Olympus, the Grecian "divine
mountain," is particularly suggestive, inasmuch as it proves to be geographically
associated with four remarkable plains and rivers.

928

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 493

lished ; the dispossessed prince retaining both the landed domains
and various sacerdotal functions which had belonged to his prede
cessors."

ROME.

Seven hills, seven places of worship, septemvirate, seven minis
ters, Septizonium, p. 464.

Roman quadrata, Janus quadrifrontis, quadruplicate territorial
division carried out. Palestine, for instance, divided into four
tetrarchies under Roman rule.

Twelve gods, twelve months, etc.

New Rome divided into four parts, each consisting of thirteen
prefectures i. e. fifty- two prefectures in all.

GAUL.

Seven provinces.

BRITAIN.

Seven kings = heptarchy.
Four kings of Kent =. tetrarchy.

IRELAND.

Seven sanctuaries grouped around central tower.

Four associates of king of Erin.

Group consisting of!2-f-l = 13 stone figures, p. 469.

SCANDINAVIA.

Four guardians of four quarters.

Thor, supreme divinity, pole-star god, seated and holding "seven
stars," the symbol of seven-fold power, in his hand.

Group consisting of royal throne surrounded by 12 stones. Odin
associated with twelve "godes," p. 472.

NORTH AMERICA.

Huron confederacy = seven tribes, quadriform city, 2X4 = 8
gentes, p. 198.

ZUNI.

Seven directions in space, seven quarters of city, seven tribes,
seven towns.

Four bands of priests, p. 201.

Twelve, i. e., thirteen priesthoods, p. 201.
p. M. PAPERS i 59 929

494 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

MEXICO.

Seven tribes issued from seven caves, seven gods or chiefs, p.
62.

Four quarters of city, represented by four chieftains, four sub-
rulers, four divisions of army, four year signs, four tribes, four
tribal trees (fig. 52), four storied pyramids.

Thirteen divisions or parts, p. 181.

Calendar and state organized into 4 X 13 = 52 parts.

YUCATAN.

Title of ruler, u the divine Four," four sub-rulers, four royal
brothers, four-year periods, p. 218, four quarters, p. 223, four
year signs.

Twelve i. e. thirteen priest-rulers of Mayapan, p. 209.

GUATEMALA.

Seven tribes, seven day period, p. 179.

Four nations, four provinces, four capitals, four Tullans, pp.
164, 171.

Thirteen divisions of warriors, p. 179.

PERU.

Empire named "Four in one," Creator named " Earth, air,
fire and water in One," four provinces, four viceroys.

Twelve i. e. thirteen wards in Cuzco, twelve divisions of year,
p. 144.

Before commenting upon the above summary, and as its necessary
complement, a brief examination must be made of the various modes
in which the phenomenon of celestial axial rotation figured in the
rituals of primitive people.

OLD WORLD.

The lighting of "sacred fire," by means of the wooden fire-drill
and the wooden socket block, appears as the most ancient and
widespread ritualistic performance.

To begin with, the reader is requested to read carefully the fol
lowing detached extracts from Hewitt's work :

"In the Rig- Veda the Aryan invaders of Lydia are called the
Tritsu,'the boring people,' who used the fire-drill ; also Arna, 'sons
930

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 495

of Aram,' the fire-drill, whose sacred number is four."

" In India, from time immemorial, by a process like churning,
fire has been produced by the A rani, made of the Ashvattha (Ficus
religiosa) wood, being twirled repeatedly round till the fire is
lighted, by a string fixed in the cross-bar at its top," a method, I
may add, which is a later development of the more primitive mode
of twirling the fire-drill by hand. "The Kushites . . . believed
that life was generated by the union of heat with water . . . and
that heat was, in the astronomical myth, engendered by the revo
lution of the Great Bear and the connection between it, the vital
heat and the creating water is shown in one of its Akkadian names,
Bel-a-sar-a, which means 'the fire god wrho measures the water yoke'
(R. Brown and Sayce) , or, in other words, Bel, the distributor of the
water allotted to the earth. From this heavenly cistern and fire-
drill, in which marichi, the fire-spark, is hidden, the water of life
is distributed."

Compare the preceding with the following statements : "Accord
ing to the Arab doctrine of the pole, the seven stars of the Great
Bear and the star Canopus [?] formed the fire-drill." According to
Hewitt ". . . It was the Ashvins, . . . the twin brothers of day and
night, . . identified with the twin stars in Gemini, who twirled round
the fire drill of the northern pole ... or, according to a later hymn,
drove through the seas with one of the wheels of their chariot in
Ursa Major and one in heaven, — that is, to drive around the pole."
A deeper comprehension seems to be afforded by this association
of the Ashvins with the axis, of the significance of the two fig
ures (of a god and his consort) who, in the Sippar tablet, appear
to be directing the wheel of Shamash — the world-axis and symbol
of quadruplicate terrestrial government (seep. 365). Reference
should also be repeated here, to Al-kuth and Al-fass, the Arabian
names for Polaris, respectively signifying the axle and the hole of
the axle, also to th'e pole star of Northern India — Grahadhara, —
the "pivot of heaven, "and to the significant fact that in Egyptian
hieratic script the word an i= the Akkadian and Sumerian word for
heaven, and Babylonian- Assyrian word for god, is found rendered
by a man "turning around," an action expressing the verb an.

It is interesting to collate these statements with the descriptions
of Dhruva (see p. 448, note 1), the personification of centrifugal
power, who, as he turns, causes the heaven to revolve around the
fixed centre on which he stands, resting on one foot only, and to

931

49 G KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

note how the two distinct ideas of central stability and rotation
influenced the making of pagan divinities. The idea of stability
was perpetuated in the house-pole which sustained Aman, the roof
of primitive dwellings in the column an, which supported the
temple roof and in time was transformed into a hermes, or, in
Egypt, into a statue of Amen-ra, and in the mythical mountain of
the North, Sama, which supported the heaven (Sama). Dhruva's
turning round on one foot, which implies the use of the other, re
appears in the Hephaistos of Greek mythology, who was, as Hew
itt tells us (p. 504), uthe fire-drill and its driver, and was called
Amphi-Gueeis, or he who halts on both legs, . . . was cast from
heaven by Zeus, and was the husband of the fire-socket, the first
form of the Greek goddess Aphrodite."

For information regarding the cult of the fire-socket, the con
struction of the Hindu fire-altars in the form of a woman, repre
senting u mother-earth" or " the primaeval mother," Aditi, I refer
the reader to Hewitt's work, and also to p. 323 of the present
publication, where the description of the Jiddah sanctuary proves
the existence of the same ancient form of cult in Arabia. Hewitt
relates on page 170 that, on the fire-altar, the central fire called
Agni jatavedas is kindled when the officiating priest addresses in
the words of Rig- Veda in, 29, 4 : " We place thee, O Jatavedas, in
the place of Ida (the mountain daughter of Manu) in the navel
(nabha) of the altar, to carry our offerings." In Rig- Veda, x, 61,
we are also told how Nabha-Nedishtha (that which is nearest to
the navel) was born from the union of celestial lightning flash
with the earth, and how, on his birth, he claimed to be the su
preme god, saying: " This, our navel, is the highest. I am his
son ... I am the twice-born son of the law (of nature) . . ." Hew
itt (p. 171) regards, moreover, the image of the goddess of the
earth altar found by Schliemannin the second city from the bottom
of the six cities, built one over another on the site of Troy, a
counterpart of the Hindu fire-altar. It is significant that the
Trojan image exhibits a triangle surrounded by seven disks, and
containing the swastika, which Hewitt designates as "the holy fire,
the sun of the revolving year," a view curiously, though indistinctly,
analogous and parallel to that I have formulated in the present
research.

"In the Brahmanas the Try-Ambika offering, a very ancient form
of the rain festival, is described . . . Its sanctity dated from the

CIVILIZATIONS IN CKNERAL. 497

days of primeval theology, for the offerings were made on a spot
outside and to the north of the consecrated area, and on one inter
sected by cross-roads, and thus marked by the cross sacred to the
rain-god, which is said to be Rudra's favorite haunts, and the
halting place of the Agnis . . . Hence the festival is dedicated to
Rud-ra, the red (rud) god, the father of the seven Marut stars . . .
He is called the red god from the spark of fire kindled by him in
the fire socket when he was the fire-drill, and from being reddened
by the blood of the victim slain in his sacrifices when he was the
sacrificial stake to which the annual victims, whose blood fertilized
the ground, were bound, and this name was continued to him when
he became the red cloud of the thunderstorm which infused the
soil of life into the earth by pouring on it the life-giving rain, the
blood of the creating god . . . . "

In the Rig- Veda the rain-god is termed Ushana, the u lord of
fire," who is made to exclaim : " It is I who pour down rain for
the good of creatures." It was he who was also known as Varuna,
the Greek Ouranos, who . . . became the god of the dark night . . .
The union [in India] of the patriarchal worshippers of the North
ern father-god, with the matriarchal races of the south was fol
lowed by the miners, metal-workers and artisans of the early
bronze age, who looked on fire and the life-giving heat as the
author of life. These were the people (of Finnic origin) who em
ployed the word ku for god, in Asia Minor became the worshippers
of the mother goddess Magha, the socket block from which fire
was generated by the fire-drill, and it was they, "the Sous of
Magha" that became the Maghi of Persia and the Maghadas of In
dian history.

In connection with the union of a northern patriarchal and a
southern matriarchal race, an astronomical myth deserves particular
attention, as it commemorates the combination of a feminine cult
of the Pleiades, the " spinning stars," with a masculine cult of
Ursa Major. According to this myth, related by Hewitt, the
11 Spinners" •=. Krittakas (from krit, to spin) were "the mother-
stars of the earth," who were married to the seven stars of the
Great " Bear, the father-stars of the North."1 Remarking how

ll'This metaphorical name (the Krittakas) was derived from the vocabulary of the
Northern races, who had learned in Asia Minor and the neighborhood of the Caspian
Sea to spin thread and weave cloth from the flax of Asia Minor, and the hemp of
the shores of the Caspian Sea, and who had taken their knowledge with them when
emigrating to the villages of the Neolithic life in Europe and to the Kushite Empire

933

498 KEY-NOTE <>F ANCIENT

curiousl}T the assignment of the north to the male and the south
to the female element coincides with what has been noted in
Egypt, I note here the interesting detail recorded by Hewitt (p.
379) that to this day the Hindu bride and bridegroom respectively
pay reverence to the Pleiades and Ursa Major, before worshipping
the pole-star, " the spotted bull," on entering their house. It
would seem as though the fulfilment of this ritual might limit the
Hindu marriage season to some particular time of the year, marked
by the position of the Pleiades ; in which connection it is interest
ing to remember that, in Mexico, the culmination of the Pleiades
at midnight marked the New Year festival, when sacred fire was
rekindled and the union of Heaven and Earth took place. On pp.
130-132 of Hewitt's work, vol. i, the reader will find instructive
data regarding Pleiades festivals.

The preceding details appear to show that whereas a northern
patriarchal race would naturally symbolize axial rotation by the
fire-drill, a southern matriarchal race would adopt the spindle for
the same purpose. Such a ritualistic use of the spindle would
undoubtedly afford a very simple explanation for the presence of
cross- symbols and swastikas and other designs of religious signifi
cance upon the terra-cotta spinning whorls found in such quanti
ties in Troy, for instance, and the cited allusion on one of these,
to the pole-star god, Tur, corroborates this view.1

It is instructive to trace how, amongst primitive agricultural
races, the art of spinning, the employment of beasts of burden, the
invention of the oil-press which " was used in Asia Minor as it has
been used for time immemorial in India to extract the oil of the
sesame seeds," and of the wheel and cart, influenced their respect
ive adoption of symbols of axial rotation. In turn, these symbols
suggested and created divergent forms of ritual and religious cult.
"The Turanians .... when they had evolved the idea of the god

in India, where they divided the people into guilds or trade unions, founded on
community of function, and discovered how to use cotton thread for weaving. The
reverence of the Ashura Kushika for the Pleiades, whose mother star Is Amba, also
proves them to be connected with the southwestern Semites, the Himydritic Arabs
of Southern Arabia, the land of Sheba, meaning seven, meaning the seven stars of
the constellation of the Great Bear, called by the Arabs Al-suha, who first worshipped
the Pleiades with its 6 stars, the sacred number of the Ashura, as their mother
constellation, under the name of Tur-ayya, or children of the father-pole (tur, of the
Turanian race) . . . ." (Hewitt).

1 Various writers have observed and pointed out the close resemblance in form and
decoration, between the terra-cotta whorls found, in profusion, in Mexico and those
of Troy.

934:

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 499

of heaven as the pole turned by the revolving days and weeks
symbolized it as the pole of the threshing floors around which the
oxen were driven." The reader is referred here to the passages
from the Bhagavata-purana quoted in the present work (note 1, p.
448), in which axial rotation is compared to " oxen turning around
their stakes," to which must be added the Vedic " one- wheeled car
to which one horse named seven was yoked" (see p. 452, note 1),
and the revolving wheel and the revolving measuring pole of the
potter and builder castes, which united formed the Telis caste.

In the Vaya Purana, tl the seven Maruts drive the stars which
are bound to it by ties invisible to man, round the pole. They
move round like the beam in the oil-press, for its bottom is, as it

were, standing still, while its end moves round "

In the ritual " the Sanscrit Isha or the beam which turns this pole
of heavenly oil-pressing mill, is the husband and father." A
diverging view, which developed and combined the ideas of fixity
and circular motion with the kindling of the vital spark by the
wooden fire-drill, caused the living tree to become the emblem of
the tribal father or mother. The custom, still in use among some
primitive people, of drilling for fire in the dry, inflammable bark of
dead trees of a particular species, may have forcibly directed the
choice of tribal trees. At all events, in India, we find the mango
or Am tree, which recurs in Egyptian script (see fig. 63, 22), the
fig-tree, the udumbara, the date-palm and other trees established
as the parent trees of different tribes, who made their respective
house- poles and presumably their fire-drills and sockets, from their
wood. The curious ritual of marrying men and women to their
respective mother or father tribal trees, before they are wedded
to their respective husbands and wives is mentioned by Hewitt
on p. 237, etc. This close bond between some special kind of
tree and a tribe is a point which I particularly emphasize on account
of its analogy to ancient Mexican, Maya and Peruvian tribal
trees.

Returning to a study of the pole and the beam of the oil-press we
find that, in Essay n, Hewitt traces the Greek myths of Ixion and
Koronis to the Hindu comparison of the heavens to a revolving oil-
press and, in the ritual of the Vajapeya sacrifice, refers the dawn of
astronomy to the observation of the revolutions of the pole and the
reckoning of the seven days of the week. . . . "Ixion, when raised
to heaven, was the rain-god, who turned one wheel, to which his

935

500 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

hands and feet were fixed by Hermes, the fire-god, continuously
in the air, and this is merely a mythic way of saying that he
was the fire-drill, made as the revolving pole to rotate perpetually,
and by being turned to every side in his winged course, to produce
life-giving heat, the generator of rain. . . The Greek Ixion is the
same word as the Sanscrit Akshivan, the driver of the axle (aksha).
. . . Ixion is also, according to Bopp and Pott, connected with
the root ik, pouring water, which appears in ichor, ' the blood of
the gods,' the water of life."

''Moreover, the Sanscrit aksha is a word of which the original is
found in the Gond akkha, an axle. In the summer festival of the
agricultural Gonds, called Akkhadi or Akhtuj, the worship of
the cart axle or Akkha takes place and is associated with Nagur, the
rain snake. . . In the Vajapeya sacrifice . . . the Soma priest conse
crates two cups of the sacred drink Soma above the axle, at the
same time as the Neskti priest consecrates two cups of Sura be
low it. In this ceremony we see a reminiscence of the days when
the axle was the upright revolving pole pressing out the heavenly
rain. ... It also shows us how it was that the axle became the
sacred part of the Soma cart . . , and the revolving pole became
the axle of the car of time and of the cart of the agricultural Gonds.

It seems easy to trace from the rude one-wheeled cart, the evo
lution of the two-wheeled chariot, the prerogative of royalty in
India and Assyria, employed simultaneously with the regal um
brella, which, when twirled, symbolized celestial axial rotation and
suggested the idea of a protective deity. The transition from the
''one-wheeled car" of the oldest Veda, to which "one horse named
seven was yoked" to the chariot of Apollo = "Seven," whose lyre,
with seven chords, struck the divine heptachord of the Pythagoreans,
and who drove seven horses, coincides with that of the umbrella
which, in Greece, was borne at the period of the summer solstice in
the Skirophoria or " festival of the umbrella," in honor of Athene.

It is particularly gratifying to me, as it so forcibly substantiates
the views I have been enlarging upon in this investigation, to refer
here to Hewitt's quotations (p. 7, vol. n) from the Rig- Veda, in
which the wheeled chariot, closely identified with the year, is said
to be drawn by the father-horse, with seven names, the seven days
of the week, etc. Hewitt likewise cites passages of the Rig- Veda
containing the conception of year wheels, the varying number of
936

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 501

whose spokes agree with different divisions of the year. Thus one
year-wheel exhibits twelve spokes, denoting months, another five
spokes denoting five seasons. A chariot, with seven wheels with six
spokes, is explained as meaning the seven days of the week and the
six seasons of the southern year. " All living beings rest on the
five-spoked wheel, ... the horses draw the never-aging wheel
through space, whence the eye of the sun on which all life depends,
looks down. The seventh of those born together they call ' that
born alone' : this is the self-created thirteenth or central month ;
the six twinned months are said to be those begotten of the gods.
They are arranged in their order, six on each side of the central
month, by the leader who dwells above." A striking analogy to
the ideas I detected, as associated with central rulership, in an
cient America, is set forth in Hewitt's statement that, it was to the
one wheel year " that the Hindus likened their universal monarch,
the Chakravartaor king, who sits, like the Kushite monarch, as the
father of his subject tribes, in the central province of his domin
ions, and directs his satellites, the rulers of the seasons, who be
came the ruling stars of the frontier provinces — the Nakshatra
stars — to turn the wheel (chakra) of time in its yearly round" (op.
cit. p. 31, vol. n, see also p. 314.)1

The single wheel, without any indication of an utilitarian em
ployment, is found directly associated with the pole-star in Japan,
where, as in China, the use of the wheel has been known from earli-

1 There is, however, a wide difference between Hewitt's views and mine concerning
the stars associated with the year wheel and the origin and meaning of the primitive
cross-symbols and swastika, although at times they partially agree. As Hewitt given
several totally distinct and different explanations of the origin and significance of
crosses and swastikas, it is diflicult to understand clearly his standpoint. On p. 9,
vol. II, he makes an interesting differentiation between a diagonal or transverse and
upright cross, respectively designating them as rain-cross and flre-cross,and states that
their superposition forms the eight-rayed star, the Akkadian and early Indian sign of
Anu sas god. On p. 145, vol. II he names the transverse cross a sun-cross and says it
describes the track of the sun across the heavens, on solstitial days and distinctly de
scribes the swastika in the centre of the triangle on the Hindu altar, as " a symbolic
picture of the sun rising at midsummer in the N. E. and setting in the X. W., and at
the winter solstice rising in the S. E. and setting in the S. W." On the other hand
Hewitt associates the right-angled cross with the lire-god and the pole-star (p. 191,
vol. n), and the five-rayed star of Horns as the rain or meridian pole, or mountain
standing in the midst of the four stars marking the four quarters of the heavens
(p. 9, vol. II and p. 17, vol. I). I recommend a careful re-perusal of all of Hewitt's
interpretations of cross-symbols and swastika and a close comparison of these with
my views, as set forth in the beginning of the present publication, to Mr. Stansbury
Hagar who, somewhat hastily, upon hearing my brief communication to Section II of
the A. A. A. S. in New York, June 1'JOO, stated (in the October number of the Folk,
lore Journal) that my view concerning the origin of the swastika was the same as
that suggested by Hewitt.

937

502 KEY-NOTE OK ANCIENT

est times. It will be for Scandinavian archaeologists to enlighten
us as to the earliest traces of the use, by northern races, not only
of the wheeled chariot, familiar to those who named Ursa Major,
Thor's wagon, but also that of the mill-stone. The employment
of the latter in the description of the " revolving world mill-stone
through which the waters of the Universe fountain flowed," is a
proof that the Eddas were written by an agricultural people, pos
sessing advanced methods of grinding or of extracting oil or juice
from food stuffs. The association of the Norse mill- stone with the
distribution of liquid, appearing to indicate that, like the oil-press
of ancient India, the stone-mill of Scandinavia had been employed
to extract fluids, challenges investigation as to the original home
of the mill-stone and chariot of the Eddas.

Personally I am inclined to regard the term u world mill-stone"
as a modernized transcription of the term " axle," and the whole
as a rendering of the archaic idea that " heat was engendered by
the revolution of the Great Bear " and that the axle of heaven was
the distribution of vital heat and vivifying water. I shall await
enlightenment as to the relationship of the Norse tree of the pole
and Thor, with the creating fire-drill of Tur, the father-god ; and
the connection of the Norse "mill-stone" and fountain, to the
fire-socket and celestial cistern of the Kushites, said to be the
u sons of the Finnic Ku, the begetter and rain-god," who, having
migrated to India and united with other races, founded a mighty
confederacy, the plan of which is figured in Hewitt's work (p. 220) ,
by " the union of four triangles, representing the southeastern and
northwestern races, .... with spaces left open for the parent
rivers," which flow towards the cardinal points (see figure 73, c).

If we now revert to the first stages of the mental evolution, the
outcome of which we have been reviewing, we cannot but recognize
the curious, but perfectly natural chain of reasoning which led
early man to explain natural phenomena in different ways by the
results of his own immediate observation and experience. He had
discovered that the rotation of the fire-drill generated fire ; conse
quently the rotation of the circumpolar constellations must generate
life-giving heat. The churning or twirling of liquid in a vessel,
by means of the drill, caused an overflow ; consequently the action
of the fire-drill also caused an external flow of life-giving waters,
which, after the invention of the oil or grape press, was compared
to the flow of precious oil or wine from the receptacle.
93,s

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 503

High mountains attracted lightning-clouds and when these col
lected around their summits whence rivers constantly flowed, life-
giving rain descended ; consequently the tops of cloud-capped
mountains must reach to the axle of the heaven where fire, heat
and rain were being generated and distributed by the rotation of
celestial bodies. As Polaris the axle, pivot or fire socket, was
immovable it could most appropriately be figured by a wooden or
stone socket, from which fire and water flowed towards the four
quarters. Such an image would also figure a year, and, by exten
sion, time, since it marked the four annual positions of circumpolar
star-groups. The adoption of a stone socket as an image of the
" revolving heaven " could thus have long antedated, but have
suggested the invention of the wheel, which was at first a religious
and then became a royal symbol.

I venture to express the view that the archaic image of Shamash
(fig. 73, a) , the homonym of Heaven and the North, which was "an
ancient model" at the time of Nabupaliddin (879-855 B. C.), could
only have been invented by a race of pole-star worshippers who
had long been acquainted with the uses of the fire drill and the
oil-press. At the same time I point out how remarkably the com
bination of four rays and four streams in the image of Shamash
(Shame =. heaven) coincides with the explanation given by Hewitt
(p. 9, vol. n) of the Akkadian eight-rayed star of Ann (heaven),
which, he asserts, is formed by the superposition of the fire-cross
and rain cross. It is a most remarkable and undeniable fact that
there is a striking analogy between the Ann sign as explained
by Hewitt and the Shamash image. The eight-rayed or " spoked
wheel " of Ishtar, which figures on the same tablet, also gains sig
nificance for the same reason, and particularly when collated with
the hymn cited in note 1, p. 448, in which she is clearly designated
as the " axis of the heavens." i. e. the female Polaris.

Having indicated how the origin of the image of Shamash can
be traced to conceptions arising from the use of the fire-drill and
some primitive mode of extracting oil or of preparing a highly valued
drink from seeds and plants, by centrifugal action, invented by a
primitive agricultural people, I advance the suggestion that the celes
tial tree of the Norsemen and Semites, associated with the fountain
and the four rivers of life, appears as a closely related symbol
which, however, mainly expressed the idea of stability. In the Eddas
the tree occurs as a complement to the world axle, the first as the

039

504 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

emblem of stability and of a central power which dispensed shade
and life-giving fruits in all directions ; the second as the image of
centrifugal power which caused the star-groups to assume opposite
positions aud which impartially distributed heat and water. It is
curious to note how readily from the fire-drill and beam of the oil
press as a starting point, not only all forms of tree and pole wor
ship and the Chinese assignment of element wood to the Middle,
but also all symbols of centrifugal motion, such as the axle, the
pivot and the wheel, could have evolved on closely parallel lines.

Let us now transport ourselves to a land where, to this day, the
Indian women grind maize on a flat stone, by means of a pestle,
where the oil-press and the mill- stone, the pole of the threshing-
floor, the potter's wheel and the cart wheel were unknown before
the date of the Spanish Conquest and rotatory motion was associa
ted with the fire-drill and spinning whorl only.

NEW WORLD.

The ancient Mexican name for the fire-drill = mamalhuaztli, and
that for spinning- wrheel = malacatl, are both derived from the verb
malacachoa = to whirl, turn or drill. At the time of the Spanish
invasion (A. D. 1519) the Mexican priesthood lit the sacred fire
of the altar by an extremely primitive method of employing the
fire-drill : by holding it tightly between the palms of both hands
and rapidly rubbing them alternately forward and backward.

The Codices contain numberless pictures representing a priest,
in the act of kindling fire by inserting the drill in a simple wooden
beam, usually exhibiting several small holes or sockets. On the
other hand the Borgian Codex, which has recently been placed
within general reach by the generosity of the Due de Loubat, shows
us two elaborate representations of the great ceremony of kindling
the holy fire in a large circular socket, on the body of a woman
which, in all cases is combined with the image of an alligator
(seep. 91). In another Codex the alligator alone supports the
socket. The smaller of these representations is reproduced in fig.
29, and on pp. 93-97 this image is discussed as well as the remark
able stone fire altars in human form, of which one has been
unearthed near the city of Mexico, while no less than six were
found at Chichen-Itza. My informant on this point is Mr. Alfred
P. Maudslay, who added that they seem to have been invariably
placed at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the temple, the facade
940

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL,. 505

of which is always supported by two great columns, each sculp
tured in the form of a great serpent with open jaws, the symbol
which, in the bas-reliefs at Chichen-Itza and on the Central Ameri
can stelae, recurs on the head-dresses of the rulers termed " Divine
serpents," or " divine four in One."

Postponing comment upon the curious analogy between the stone
fire altars in human form, of the Mayas and Mexicans, with those
of the Maghadus of Northern India, who called themselves the Sons
of Magha=the socket-block whence fire was generated by the fire-
drill, or the mother Maga, the sacred alligator, let us examine
the fire-drill god of ancient Mexico.

Reference to fig. 1 reveals that it is impossible to see these
Mexican representations, which I could supplement by others,
and not be struck by their agreement with the descriptions of the
Hindu pole-star god Dhruva, who stands on one foot, of the lame
Hephaistos of Greek mythology, to which I would add that Hewitt
also mentions in his preface to vol. n the Norse Volunde, the
maimed, one-legged turner of the pole ; the god called in the
Rig- Veda the Aja ekapad, or one-footed goat, who watched the rev
olutions of the solar disk, and the one-legged bird of Russian my
thology, associated with a revolving house and fire-drill. In the
Mexican Codices the Mexican Tezcatlipoca, held by one foot to the
centre of the north, describes a circle around this. His foot evi
dently constitutes the fire-drill, which, inserted in the socket, causes
smoke, also rain and a serpent to issue from it (see 5 and 6). One
figure, representing one leg only in the fire-socket, and a head, ex
hibiting a small, smoking fire- socket, appears, in the light of com
parative research, as a cursive method of representing the fire-drill
god, universally associated with Ursa Major.

It is remarkable that, in one case water and in another smoke,
indicating fire, issues from the socket of Tezcatlipoca's fire-
drill, and that, opposite to the picture in the Borgian Codex, repre
senting the kindling of fire on the fire-altar, we have the image of
a pool of water from which four figures spring toward the cardinal
points (see fig. 29).

It is only after recognizing that, like the people of the Old World,
the Mexicans associated with the fire-drill and socket not only the
distribution of fire and heat, but also of water, that we also fully
grasp the symbolism of the symbol of the "Black or Night Sun,"

941

KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

from the " Life of the Indians," which is but one of many simple
forms exhibiting main features which recur on the highlj1 elaborated
Mexican stone of the Great Plan (fig. 736). When placed in jux
taposition the undoubted resemblance between the Babylonian im
age of Shamash and the Mexican image, as well as the deep-seated
identity of these two quadruplicate symbols stands out clearly : in
the Babylonian, wavy lines emanating from the centre convey the
idea of some fluid essence. In the Mexican, instead of the wavy
lines, the conventional representation of a drop of water is depicted
— the idea in both cases being obviously identical and agreeing
with the primeval universal conception of heat or fire, and water
emanating from a common source, and flowing to the cardinal points.
In both cases an axle or socket is represented, and it is instructive
to study the different ways in which the symbol recurs in the Mexi
can Codices.

Referring back to fig. 1,1, reproduced from the Codex Borgia,

FIG. 73.

we see the axle with rays issuing from a circular band of water,
A receptacle filled with water occupies the centre and contains a
tecpatl, the symbol of the north, the same associated with the fire-
drill god in the next figure. In fig. 1, 4, the central fountain is
surrounded, as in many instances, by stars which connect it with
the nocturnal heaven, and it contains a rabbit=tochtli, the rebus
figure employed to express the word octli, by which the rain
was designated as "earth wine" (see pp. 95 and 185).

As I write, I have before me a whole series of painted represen
tations from the Codices of what has heretofore been misinterpret
ed as images of the diurnal sun. In some of these the open centre
is painted blue or green, in others it is filled by a heart from which
flows, in some cases, a stream of blood, the essence of life. In
several instances a tree with four main branches grows from the
942

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 507

centre.1 lu one case the tree grows from a pool and holds in its
branches the image of the axle, in the centre of which, as in thellum-
boldt Tablet preserved at the Berlin Museum, a figure is seated.
The centres of others exhibit the head of a divinity painted red, a
single eye, or the ollin. All examples establish the fact that the
Mexican "• axle of the North" represented fire and water emanat
ing from a single source. In notable examples, where the axle is
carved in stone, the identical features are conventionally repro
duced. Some exhibit a depression or deep hole in the centre.
This is the case in the remarkable example at the museum in New
Haven, Conn., where the axle is carved on the top of a square
altar, the corners of which exhibit symbols of the four elements,
each accompanied by the numeral 4. The centre of the figure ex
hibits a carved olliu, in the middle of which a deep hole is
situated. An analogous but shallow depression occurs in the
great circular monument, the Conquest Stone of Mexico (see p.
259), around which Tezcatlipoca, the one-footed fire-drill god,
is represented sixteen times, each time in the act of receiving
the enforced homage of the chief or chieftainess of a different
locality.

The above monuments, as well as a rudely-carved representa
tion of the "sun" recently discovered and unearthed by Dr. Ed.
Seler, lying on a substructure of stones in the centre of an open
space, presumably a market place, definitely proves that the design
was intended to be placed in a horizontal position. This intention
has already been noted in the case of the Great Cosmical Stone of
Mexico (fig. 56), on which the rays and intermediate water drops
recur, and are represented as emanating from the central Nahui
Ollin, the Four in One, which encloses the masked face of the di
vine Twain.

A question naturally suggests itself at this juncture : How did
the ancient Mexicans, who utilized the fire-drill in its most element
ary form and as far as is known, employed no means of extract-

1 Referring the reader to pp. 18(5 -1!.)2 for details concerning native tree worship, I
shall but add that to this day, among certain North American tribes, the planting of
the sacred tribal pole in the hallowed earth socket is accompanied by curious ritual
istic marriage rites, and the ceremonial kindling of the sacred fire of the fire drill.
For the association of four Mexican tribes with four tribal trees and totemic birds,
see fig. 53, and note that the central figure, enclosed in a square, is represented as
though four streams of blood, flowing from the four angles, converged in his person,
constituting him the "Four in One."

943

508 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

ing oil or juice or of grinding food-stuff by a centrifugal process,1
come to employ as a sacred symbol, the axle or "mill-stone"
which, in India, had been adopted as an image of central rotation,
by people who constantly used the fire-drill and the oil-press ?

The strongest proof that the idea of a circular disk was associa
ted in Mexico with terra-cotta spinning whorls only, is the fact that,
in the native description of the Great Temple recorded by Sahagun,
a circular stone monument, employed in religious festivals, which
the Spaniards described as a " stone wheel," is termed in the
Nahuatl text as a " te-malacatl " i. e. a u stone whorl." Further
evidence of the close association of such "stone whorls" with
thread or cord, the product of spinning, is furnished by the way in
the ritual, that the victim was attached by one foot to the open
centre of the " stone whorl" and circulated around the stone which
lay motionless. On the other hand, the sculptured zone on the
Great Cosmical stone, enclosing the day signs placed in their fixed
order of rotation, and the sculptured frieze on the Tribute Stone,
furnish direct evidence that circular movement was associated with
the cosmical axle, or disk.

It is obvious that the distribution of water combined with fire
from a common central source, represented as a mill-stone, could
not have been suggested to the native mind by the use of the fire-
drill and socket and the spinning whorl only. Therefore we are
obliged to face the question whether the cosmical figure may not
have been introduced, as a religious symbol only, by a race of civ-
ilizers who, though acquainted not only with the oil press and char
iot but also with the Akkadian star of Anu, the combination of the
rain and fire crosses, and with the Assyrian-Babylonian image of
Shamash (an elaboration of the same idea) , but in the absence of
beasts of burden and sesame seeds in Mexico, had no opportunity,
or did not consider it feasible or necessary, to teach the use of the
chariot, oil-press or circular mill stone to the natives. Before form
ing any conclusions or conjectures on this point, however, a nurn-

1 The only mention of a movable axle or hub that I know of in Mexican chronicles is
the cylinder of wood, described on p. 24 as being shaped like a mortar. The only
native illustration I have met which suggests the native employment of some kind of
revolving press or axle is the curious and clumsy apparatus figured on pp. 11 and 12 of
the Selden MS. preserved at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and reproduced by Kings-
borough. An examination of this strange mechanical contrivance apparently associa
ted with a monkey = ozomatli, and the sacrifice of two prisoners, will be found as
interesting as it is puzzling.

944

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 509

ber of other questions must be investigated. One fact, however,
stands out quite clearly: Whereas in figure 73, />, we have the
rudimentary form of the quadruplicate symbol, closely resembling
that which was already ancient and almost obsolete in Babylonia
in the ninth century B. C. and pertained to a cult of Shamash, the
North and Heaven, which had flourished in that country about
1850 B. C., the Great Cosinical Stone of Mexico represents the
highlj' advanced development and elaboration of the identical cult,
as actually established there until the year 1519 of our era.

Pausing here and looking back upon the foregoing summary of
the universal spread of identical forms of social organization and
of rituals suggested by the use of the fire-drill, in association with
a primitive pole-star cult, there are a few distinct and unrelated
points which claim special attention : First of all, the identity in
the form of the fire-altar and the cult of the fire-socket, among the
Maghas and Nahushas of India and the Mayas and Nahuas of Yu
catan and Mexico. Secondly, the striking resemblance of plan and
numerical scheme which unquestionably existed between the ideal
"divine polities," recorded by Plato, and the states which actually
existed, of ancient Peru and Mexico. It is impossible to read
Plato's scheme of an all-pervading division into 12, and his plan
for the laying out of the capital and state and not to recognize the
fact that, in Peru, as set forth on pp. 133-149 of the present work,
these identical principles were actually carried out by the alien
Incas who, in comparatively modern times, collected the natives
together and organized them into a settled community. Thirdly,
the undeniable fact that the numerical scheme of the Maya and
Mexican Calendar and state-organization is identical with that
adopted by Constantine, in establishing New Rome.

Postponing a closer examination of these points until further
on, let us now continue our comparative review.

The universal spread of the identical scheme of organization,
vouched for by documentary evidence, is further demonstrated by
the results of archaeological and historical research and a compar
ative study of ancient symbolism. Thus it is impossible not to
admit the striking and deep-seated analogy between the Assyrian
four-fold division of city and state, the title " lord of the four re
gions " and the image of Shamash, the u four-spoked wheel;" the
Indian, Egyptian and Grecian philosophical conceptions of four
elements, culminating in Plato's Cosmos and Theos (an entity,
p. M. TAPERS i GO 945

510 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

spherical in shape, incorporating four elements) and, for instance,
the quadruplicate symbol carved in the centre of the Mexican Cos-
mical Tablet, which exhibits the symbols of the same four elements
embodied in a single symbol, representing the supreme power, who
is thus proven to have been conceived by the Mexicans, as well as
by the Peruvians, as "the Air, Earth, Fire and Water in One," or
the source of the four elements.1

When it is likewise considered that the Mexicans employed the
divine title, u four times lord," that the Maya title " Kukulcan,"
signifies the " Divine Four," that the ancient map of Mayapan
proves that, like the Kushite confederacy, and the kingdoms of
Assyria, Egypt and Peru, it was a kk Four provinces in One " or a
" four-fold state," the identity of the principles underlying the
archaic civilizations of the Old and New World becomes more and
more apparent. It likewise becomes evident that in each of these
countries the significance and symbolism of the archaic cross-sym
bol and swastika must have been identical, and that, like the pyr
amid (the form of which, in the ancient Greek alphabet, is given

1In a paper read to the Section of Anthropology of the New York meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Mr. Stansbury Ilagar com
municated the interesting results of his study of the Salcamayhua tablet which has
been alluded to on p. 1(52 of the present publication. With his kind authorization I
take pleasure in citing here his interpretation of the name of the Peruvian Creator,
an abbreviation of which is inscribed on the plate or tablet. It will be found to
accord with that given by Sir Clements B. Markham (History of Peru, p. 20), but to be
more explicit. According to his view the name should be analyzed as follows :
ilia = light, lightning = fire ; ticci = foundation, brick = earth ; uayra /. e. huaii = air,
wind ; cocha = lake = water.

" Ilia ticci uayra cocha would thus mean: the universal spirit defined by naming
what seemed to a people unacquainted with scientific chemistry to be the four ulti
mate elements."

Referring to the cognate Aymara language, Mr. Ilagar interprets the name pacha-
ya ehachic as " source, lit. male ancestor, grandfather of all things," and states that
the opening inscription on the tablet should therefore read: " Spirit of Fire, Earth,
Air and Water, source of all things" . . . that is to say" image of the source whence
heaven and earth have emanated." Mr. Hagar states that this source seems to be-
appropriately figured by the oval form which he interprets as an egg (see lig. '28, c).
On the other hand I point out that the flat plate of fine gold, which was set up by
the Inca Manco Capac between images of the sun and moon, is figured as circular in
shape (fig. 28, b).

I draw attention to Mr. Stansbury Hagar's interesting and suggestive paper on
" The Celestial Bear, " which appeared in vol. XTII, no. XLIX, of the Journal of
American Folk-lore, in July, 1900. In this he relates the legend connected with Ursa
Major by the Micmac Indians, that "this group of stars served to mark the divisions
of the night and the seasons for the Micmacs." A point of particular interest in con
nection with the Micmac legend is the fact, so clearly distinguishable, that the story
was suggested to the minds of the Indians by the different positions assumed by the
constellation in its annual circuit around Polaris.

"The Micmacs say , . . . In all things as it was and is in the sky, so it is on>
946

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 511

to the letter delta which expresses, numerically, four, a quatuor,
or 4,000) and the square stone altar or column, it figured the Four
in One, the mystic Five or the Four and all-embracing One. The
following array of facts demonstrates further the universal asso
ciation of archaic cross-symbolism with the conception of an all-
embracing, stable, central power.

A striking demonstration of this is furnished by the diagonal
cross, employed as a Chinese character, to express the word wu =
five, just as it is used, in Egyptian hieratic script, to express the
syllables uu, un or ur (see fig. 60). Sometimes, in Chinese, a hori
zontal line is drawn above the cross and another beneath it. and
John Chalmers informs us that, according to the Shoh Wan, this
u full form means the five elements between heaven and earth, the
upper line being heaven and the lower earth." The sign thus ob
viously constituted an image of the Cosmos, the 5 -\- 2 = heaven

earth In midspring the bear does actually seem to be climbing down out of her

[celestial] den [corona borcalis], which appears higher up to the northern horizon.

In midsummer .... the bear runs along the northern horizon Soon

after the bear assumes an erect position she topples over on her back [is slain] in
the autumn. In midwinter she lies dead on her back, .... but the den [corona
borealis] has re-appeared, with the bear of the new year lying therein, invisible.
But this does not end the story of the bear, . . . through the winter her skeleton
lies upon its back in the sky, but her life-spirit has entered another bear who also
lies upon her back in the den, invisible and sleeping the winter sleep. When the
spring comes around again, this bear will again issue forth from the den to be again
pursued by the hunters, to be again slain, but again to send into the den her life-
spirit, to issue forth yet again when the sun once more awakens the sleeping earth.
And so the drama keeps on eternally." Reasoning by induction, I am strongly tempted
to assign the origin of the Egyptian myth of Osiris and of the "child in its cradle," to
the same source of inspiration — possibly also other myths of antiquity, such as the
twelve labors of Hercules (held by O'Neil to be a pole-star god) may be assigned to
the same source. At all events, the Micmac example is extremely instructive and
suggestive.

The following extracts from Air. Hagar's paper establish that Ursa Major was
known as the Bear to several North American tribes, and generally served to mark
time and seasons. " In a Blackfoot myth we read: The seven Persons slowly swung
around and pointed downward. It was the middle of the night," showing that they
too marked the time at night by the position of these stars. So the Zuiiis tell, when
winter comes, how the bear, lying, sleeps, no longer guarding the West land from the
cold of the Ice gods, etc., a story which demonstrates that in Zuni mythology there
was a marked association between the terrestrial bear [the " great white bear of the
seven stars," Gushing] and the seasons.

The Ojibways mention the constellation in connection with the four quarters in
heaven, showing that they, at some time, were accustomed to mark their seasons not
only by the position of the stars of the Bear, but also by the rising and setting of
various fixed stars."

In conclusion I would state that Miss Alice Fletcher has informed me that, among
the Omaha Indians, tine is n earned by Uita Major, and that the pole-star is
named the " Star which never travels."

947

512 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

and earth, thus furnishing the familiar seven directions in space,
the chief and synopsis of which is the sacred Centre.

The association, in ancient America, of the cross-shape with
central stable power, has already been discussed in the case of the
Copan swastika, p. 222. At the time when I wrote about this and
carved stela? found at Quirigua and Copan, I had not yet learned
of the remarkable discovery made there, by Mr. George Byron Gor
don of the Feabody Museum Honduras Expedition, which furnishes
me with the most striking confirmation of the conclusion I ex
pressed on p. 220, namely, that the personages, whose portraits
are sculptured on the stela?, were high-priest rulers, who bore the
title '• Divine Four," and were u rulers of the four regions.1'

Referring the reader to Mr. Gordon's report, published in vol.
i, no. i, of the Peabody Museum Memoirs, I merely note his verifi
cation that, beneath several stela? examined for this purpose, there
exist subterraneous vaults, in the form of the so-called Greek cross,
above the exact centre of which the stela stands, its base being
inserted in the stones forming the ceiling of the chamber. In one
case the length of the cruciform vault is over nine feet from east
ern to western extremity, the width of the branches being one foot
and their depth two feet. Over thirty vessels of pottery were found
in this, amongst them large urns with covers. It would appear
from this that, like the Egyptians, the ancient builders of Copan
performed certain ceremonial rites in connection with the construc
tion of these artificially cosmical centres.

What seems quite clear is that the subterraneous vault consti
tuted a sacred cosmical chamber and that the stela? were memo
rial stones, which probably represented the image of a lord, and the
record of his fixed term of office which formed a period or era of
the native calendar (see p. 221). The stela which formed the sta
ble, visible centre of the hidden substructure may also have been
employed as a gnomon during some period of time, and in the mon
ument the initiated must undoubtedly have recognized the underly
ing cosmical conceptions, and regarded it as a highly developed
form or variant of the archaic cross, the primitive record of a year.
It is remarkable how closely analogous are the Central American
stela? with their hidden cruciform vaults, to the conception of the
Egyptian " star of Horus " explained by Hewitt as the meridian
pole raised in the centre of a cross denoting the four quarters.
948

CIVILIZATIONS IN <;KXEUAL. 513

The most striking evidence of a close affinity between the an
cient Central American all-men, or master-masons, who built cruci
form windows in the walls of temples and designed the cruciform
vaults under the stela? at Copan and Quirigua, and the amanteca
or tolteca, the master-architects and builders of Mitla, Mexico, is
furnished by Mr. M. H. Saville's recent excavation of three re
markable subterraneous, cruciform chambers, the largest of which
is situated on the summit of a high bill near Mitla. The interior
of the latter is elaborately decorated with geometrical designs, like
those on the exterior of the Mitla palace. The extreme length from
east to west is 9m- 71cm", from north to south 8"1' 18cm , and its roof
was composed of large flat stones. The entrance to this and the
other cruciform vaults is situated at the extremity of the western
arm, which in the case described was longer than the other arms.

The most remarkable example of such a cruciform crypt is,
however, that situated beneath the palace of Mitla, which has been
figured by Dupaix in Lord Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities,
vol. ix. This vault is also built of the shape of a so-called "Greek"
cross, but in its centre stands a large circular stone column reach
ing from floor to ceiling. It is impossible not to recognize the
symbolism of this pillar situated in the centre of a structure,
the form of which symbolizes the Four Quarters and the funda
mental identity of the column occupying the centre of the Mitla
chamber and the Copan stelre standing above the centre of the
hidden cruciform vault. Details associated with the pillar which
stood in the Great Temple of Mexico (p. 53), and the "pedestal"
erected on the hill of justice at Guatemala (p. 79) definitely show
that, in ancient America, the column was also associated with star-
cult, with the administration of justice and central celestial and
terrestrial government. Investigation has shown that precisely the
same ideas were associated with the circular, square or octagonal
columns of Egypt, Greece, Rome and Japan, where they either con
stituted the images of the central supreme divinity, formed the
support for the statues of earthly " divine" rulers, or marked the
centres of the cosmos or state, bearing inscriptions of the sacred
laws as in Athens, or of the distances to all points of the empire,
viz. the Roman Milliarum Aureum.

It is remarkable to find that, whereas in ancient Byzantium the
centre of the citv had been marked by a column surmounted by a
colossal statue of Apollo, a pillar or pole god, Constantino erected

949

514 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

a " spacious edifice, from the centre of which all roads of the em
pire were measured." Considering that, at the time when this edifice
was built, the ancient quadruplicate plan had been revised and the
empire of New Rome had been divided into four parts by Con-
stantine, it seems reasonable to infer that the form of the great
edifice which marked the territorial centre of the new empire bore
the impress of the cruciform plan, and that the shape of the cross
should have been adopted throughout the empire, in edifices mark
ing central consecrated places. How much of the true spirit of the
Christian ideal of universal brotherhood entered into the constitu
tion of Constantino's New Rome it is impossible to conjecture.
Niebuhr denies that Constantino was a Christian, records that he
was only baptized shortly before his death, and states that the relig
ion of Constantino "must have been a strange compound indeed,
something like the amulet recently discovered at Rome, which is an
example of that curious mixture of Judaism, Christianity and Pa
ganism which we so frequently meet with from about the beginning
of the third century."1

In an extremely interesting monograph " On the origin of the
cruciform plan of the mediaeval Cathedral," by the distinguished
architect, Mr. E. M. Wheelwright, published in the u Transactions
of the Boston Society of Architects, 1891," I find the significant
fact that what is now the little church of S. Tiburce, Rome, in the
form of a Greek cross, was built at the time of Constantino.

The same monograph teaches that " de Rossi discovered in the
catacombs of Rome two scholia of a plan called specifically triclin
ium, of a date previous to Diocletian and probably of the third
century. In such were celebrated, by the presbyters, the memorial
feasts of martyrs, the congregation assembling outside. Tombs of
a positive cruciform plan are also found in the catacombs. In

3 "The amulet is of finely wrought silver, with magic inscription, the seven-branched
candlestick of Jerusalem and the usual Christian monogram. The inscription is in
Greek, mixed with barbarous and unintelligible forms. It contains however express
allusions to Christianity and states that whoever wore it would be sure to please gods
and men." It is well known that Constantino had on the reverse of his coin the in
scription Sol Invictus and on the obverse the monogram of Christ. " This has been
interpreted as a proof that the sun was his own guardian deity," but I venture to ex
plain the adoption of the sun as analogous to the ancient Egyptian mode of designa
ting the sovereign as the son of the sun, the sacred representation of Heaven. Dean
Stanley (Eastern Church, p. 193) refers to Constantino's "mode of harmonizing the
discordant religions of the empire under one institution and retention of the old Pa
gan name of Dies Solis or Sunday, for the weekly Christian festival," which was rec
ommended by Constantine to his subjects, Pagan and Christian alike, as " the vener
able day of the Sun."

050

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 515

the fifth or sixth century cruciform buildings became in the East,
and wherever Byzantine influence was potent, the recognized form
for tombs, mortuary chapels and buildings commemorative of holy
places. These types seem to have been given, by Byzantine ar
chitects, special recognition of the purpose of their construction
and to have appeared to them as monuments requiring a symbolical
egression of plan, while they evidently did not consider such
symbolical expressions requisite in buildings planned for general
congregations, which, although of types without distinct associa
tion with the Christian faith, were held, for several centuries, to
be sufficiently well adapted to purposes of Christian worship with
out material change from their ancient form [that of the Roman
Basilica].

Referring the reader to Mr. Wheelwright's monograph for in
teresting data concerning the Byzantine influence discernible in
the early types of Christian churches of cruciform plan erected
in northern Italy and Europe, I merely note here that in St.
Sophia, founded by Constantine, and completed by Justinian, "the
load of the dome is thrown on four great piers disposed at either
corner of a square. These great piers, with the corresponding
buttresses of the outer wall, suggest a possible symbolical intent

in the arrangement otherwise the cruciform plan

here suggested is expressed neither externally nor internally." I
venture to suggest that in St. Sophia, " Holy Eternal Wisdom,"
as in the case of the Pantheon, the dominant idea may have been
the all-embracing unity, but that, as the number four was identi
fied with "wisdom and justice" by the widespread Pythagorean
philosophy, that number must have seemed, to the initiated, to
pervade the entire structure. In the case of the Church of the
Nativity at Bethlehem, where it was Justinian's intention to mark
a sacred locality, we find the cruciform plan clearly carried out.
" The church of St. Simeon Stylite at Kelat Seman Syria, built
about A. D. 500, is a most interesting example of a cruciform
church, marking a sacred spot [and associated with a sacred col
umn]."

"The church of the seventh century built at Sichem, over the
well of the Samaritan, shows a distribution of plan similar to that
of S. Simeon Stylite, the holy object being at the crossing.

There are existing at St. Wandrille and at Querqueville
in Normandy, two (cruciform) triapsidal churches of a date prior

951

516 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

to the Norman conquest . . . . ti well preserved four-apsed
tomb chapel exists at Montmajour near Aries, built in 1019 ; the
detail and plan of which point to a Syrian prototype and resembles
two buildings of an early date now existing in Dalmatia." The
use of the cruciform type of church, anterior to the great revival
of purely Christian religious architecture in the thirteenth century,
was confined to Picardy and the Rhenish provinces, fine churches
of this type being at Cologne, Bonn, Marburg, etc.

It is interesting to recall that the' building of sacred structures
is attributed to u secret organizations of free or enfranchised oper
ative masons which existed during the middle ages, and pos
sessed grades of officers and secret signs by which, on coining to
a strange place, they could be recognized as real craftsmen and
not impostors." To this day, in some parts of Germany and Bohe
mia, the swastika is the sign or mark of the stone-mason's guild
which has survived from the mediaeval times. In the organized
bands of masons whose mark was the swastika and who introduced
Eastern cosmical symbolism into Europe and gradually developed,
upon this basis, a purely Christian form of architecture, we may
perhaps see the descendants of those ancient builders who, filled
with the conception of the sacred Central power, the Four Quar
ters, the Above and Below, planned the square, seven-storied zik-
kurats of Babylonia-Assyria, the pyramids, obelisks and sphinxes
of Egypt, the columns and cruciform tombs and sanctuaries of
Greece, Asia Minor and Rome, the cruciform temples and the topes
of India and the domes of the Pantheon and St. Sophia.1

It would appear that these ancient builders were also the design
ers and founders of cities and states. It is, for instance, known
that Hippodamus, the son of Euryphon, a Milesian, and by pro
fession an architect, gained celebrity in his own art by constructing
the Pineus at Athens and by improving the method of distributing

1 " No country in the world can compare with India for the exposition of the pyram
idal cross .... The body of the great temple of Bindh madhu (formerly the boast

of the ancient city of Benares demolished in the seventeenth century) was

constructed in the figure of a, colossal cross, with a lofty dome at the centre, above
which rose a massive structure of a pyramidal form. At the four extremities of the

cross there were four other pyramids A similar building existed at Mhut-

tra By pyramidal towers placed crosswise the Hindoo also displayed the all-
pervading sign of the cross. At the famous temple of Chillambrum, on the Coroman-
del coast, there were seven lofty walls, one within the other, round a central quad
rangle, and as many pyramidal gateways in the midst of each side which forms
the limbs of a vast cross" (Faber, quoted by Donelly in Atlantis, p. 335).

952

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 517

streets and planning cities and also wrote a treatise con
cerning- the best form of government.

A kinship of thought undoubtedly exists between the trained
builders of cosmical structures in the Old World and the ah-men,
the amantecas and toltecas of Central America and Mexico, who
also reared pyramids, cruciform vaults, circular temples, with open
ings to the four quarters (see fig. 30, p. 97), altars and pillars,
and in their temples wrought, in stone, endless variations of the
great human theme : the sacred central, stable power, the four quar
ters and elements, and the heaven and earth with the dualities of
Nature, and likewise instituted an artificial scheme of social oro-au-

ization, a calendar and religious rites based on these same funda
mental principles, which can be traced back to primitive pole-star
worship. It has been of utmost interest to me, as I was approach
ing the end of the present investigation, to become acquainted
with Hewitt's work and his view that it was the seafaring Turanians,
originally a northern race, the worshippers of Tin* = the pole,
who claimed descent from the seven stars of Nagash, the serpent
=: Ursa Major, and, from India, extended their trade and carried
their form of social organization and religious cult first to the
Euphratean kingdoms and afterwards to Egypt and Syria, where
they were known by the Greeks as the Phoenicians.

The subjoined detached passages, which open out new fields of
inquiry, not only appear to me to establish conclusively this view,
but certainly afford most interesting information concerning the
ancient race of pole-star worshippers, seafarers, builders and handi
craftsmen who, according to Hewitt (p. 25), extended their emi
grations not only to Europe but also to America.1 Hewitt bases

lliThe Tur-va.su, or people whose creating god (vasu) was the pole (tur), when
united with the trader;: of the south, became the mercantile mariners of the Indian
Ocean, who had imposed their rule and traditions both on the lands of Northern India
and on tiiose of the twin rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris. . . . From India, the only
land on the Indian Ocean where they could build sea-going ships, they extended their
trade, forms of government and national myths, first to the Euphratean kingdoms and
afterwards to Egypt and Syria, where they were known to the Greeks as the IMm-ni-
cians" (p. 350).

" These people had seven parent stars whose names are preserved. Professor Sayce
has identified the first of these, Sugi, with ' the star of the Wain ' and states that it
means the ' creating-spirit-reed ' or the northern khu = bird, the ' reed of the bird,
the mother of life.' Sugi is therefore an additional name for the Bear to that of Bel,

distributor of waters In both names the metaphor is the same, for it is from

the reeds at the source of the rivers, their point of distribution, that the rivers are

born Both names denoted the star that led the year and it was the Great Bear,

as Sugi, that led the earliest year, opening with the week of creation " . . . . (p. 357).

953

518 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

the latter assertion upon the identity he perceived "between Ak
kadian and American mythological traditions."

As the limit of the present inquiry excludes mythology, I cannot
discuss here the evidences of similarity produced by Hewitt. I
must express regret, however, that he designates a tribe of Pueblo
Indians (the Sias, related to the Zuiiis), as " Mexican " (see vol. n,
p. 243, etc.), a term which, in this case, is decidedly misleading.
His identification of the truly Mexican, tcteo-cipactli " as a u fish-
god" is unfortunate, as numberless conventionalized drawings in
the Codices prove that cipactli signifies alligator. If the some
what limited and vague evidence, produced by Mr. Hewitt, ap
peared to justify his conclusion, how much more must an identity
of social organization and cult such as I have traced, not only
authorize but also render it imperative, that the possibility of pre-
Columbian contact should be thoroughly looked into. Disclaiming
any desire to formulate hasty conclusions, and merely for the sake

.... " The sons of the Tur or pole were the Indian Tur-vashu, the Zend Turan
ians, the mariners of Asia Minor called by the Egyptians Tour-sha (Maspero), the sea
traders of the Mediterranean called the Tur-sene of Lydia, the Tur-sena or Tyrrhen
ians of Lemnos and Etruria, who spoke a language closely allied to that of the Akka
dians. That tlieir god was worshipped in Cyprus and Asia Minor is proved by the
terra-cotta whorl found in one of the settlements on the site of Troy, dedicated in
Cypriote characters to Patori-Turi, the father Tur, who gave his name to the Phry
gian city of Turiaion. The great antiquity of the settlement is proved by the fact
that though some bronze knives and instruments were found in it, by far the greater
number of implements were of stone and the pottery, though similar to that of Myceme,
is of a more archaic type " (Schuchhardt's Schliemann's Excavations, App. I, 331-
332 and 334).

" They were also the first spinners, weavers, makers of pottery and built canoes
and worked in mines. . . . They grew wheat, barley, peas, flax and fruit trees. . . .
These men covered the whole of Europe and Southern Asia . . . and the Indian Dek-
han with cromlechs and stone circles, which were certainly in some cases roofed over,
dolmens, meaning stone tables, shrines, altars, tumuli and memorial stones or pillars
and all of these, whether found in Western Europe or Southern Asia, are completely
identical in character. These people had, in their migrations, established an active
and widespread foreign trade " (p. 178).

"These maritime Tursena were intermingled with the matriarchal Amazonian tribes
who preceded them, and who seemed to have founded the ancient ports of Asia
Minor and Palestine, especially the Ionian cities of Smyrna and Ephesus and that
of Askelon. It was in the land of Phrygia, the mountain countries of the Caucasus
range and the snowy heights whence the Euphrates rose, that the earliest shepherds
met the matriarchal races, the immigrants from the southeast, the Hindu village com
munities, who are called by the Greeks Amazons, and are described as the earliest
ruling races of Asia Minor and Greece (p. 175)."

. The Great Naga is the Akkadian god Ner-gal, and the Phoenician god Sar-
rahu, or the Great Sar. His name among the Shuites, or the worshippers of Susi-nag
on the west of the Euphrates, is Emu, a name which is letter for letter the same as
that of the national god of the Ammonites, Amun" (Sayce: Hibbert Lectures, 1887,
in, p. 196, note 1. "Amun means the builder, or architect, and is, like that of the Egyp
tian god, formed of aman, to sustain" (Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 115). "He was the god

CIA'ILIZATIONS IN GENERAL." 519

of gaining information by looking squarely at facts, I shall now
rapidly enumerate some of these which undoubtedly appear to cor
roborate Hewitt's further assertion that "the Mayas and Nahuas
of Yucatan and Mexico were emigrants of the Magha and Nahusha
tribes, who pertained to the race of navigators known by the
Greeks as the Phoenicians. . . . and who continued in their new
land, America, the worship of the rain god, to whom, as their
fathers in central Asia, they dedicated the sign of the cross "
(Hewitt, p. 492).

" The Maghas were the Finnic long-haired race of star- and fire-
worshippers who, starting from Phrygia, as the Takkas conquered
northern India .... who called themselves the sous of the
Northern pine tree, called in Phrygia, as by the Northern Finns,
Ma = the mother; also the sons of the mother-goddess Magha,
the socket block wheuce fire was generated by the fire-drill : who
is also worshipped as the mother Maga under the form of the alli
gator. Consequently the alligator was their totem." In Essay vin

of the house pole, who became in Egyptian Thebes, Amen-Ra, the hidden, and it was
the people who made the house-pole the symbol of their ancestors, . . . who brought
to Egypt as well as to Assyria and India, the custom of having cities for the dead
apart from those for the living. . . . It was from the rains of the summer-solstice. . .
. . generated from the Naga snake that the Phoenician sons of Rush were born, whose
kings, like those of Egypt, wore the Uranis snake as a sign of royal authority. Their
original settlement, according to a tradition recoi'ded by Theophrastus, was at Titlos
or Turos, in the Persian Gulf, the modern Bahrein. This was the holy island of
Diloun, called Dilmun by the Akkadians. ... It was the settlement of Hindu navi
gators in the holy island of Dilmun in the Persian gulf, and at Eridu, which first
brought them in contact with the Arabian star-gazers and merchants, and it was the
union, in the ancient city of Ur, of these races with the Hebrew tribe of Gad (who
built, not only the cities of Bashan, but also those of Assyria and were the great
builders of the ancient world), which first formed the Semite race. It was the merid
ian pole, the heavenly, revolving pole, the Tur of the Akkadians, which the Dravidian
traders of India brought with them to Eridu" (p. 29-2). "It was these Tursena who,
by developing the ancient organization of the village and province in India, divided
all the countrieslthey occupied into confederacies of cities, such as we find among
the Euphratean nations, the Egyptians, Canaanites and the people of Asia Minor,
Greece and Italy. It was they who were the fathers of Greek and Latin civilization.
..." (p. 21)6). "It was these people who brought from India their village institu
tions, their holy groves and seasonal dances. . . . Among them the Finnic mining

races descended It was in Phrygia that they were mixed with the Daktuloi,

or race of handicraftsmen and artificers, the sons of Dak, the showing or teaching
god, the god Daksha, the lather of the Rush race. . . . They were the carpenters
and builders of the Stone age."

Prof. Sayce's " Ancient Empires of the East" furnishes further interesting details
concerning the Phoenicians. According to this eminent authority, at an early date, in
order to relieve the pressure of population, they sent out organized colonies to the
recently discovered lands of the West. Accordingly commercial mart.- were estab
lished at Thera and Melos Colonies were established at Attica, on the coast

of Africa, in Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, and beyond the columns of Herakles, in

955

520 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Hewitt states that these " sons of the great witch-mother Maga "
lived in Magnesia, whence they emigrated to Thessaly and that
theirs was the "city of the Magnetes" referred to by Plato as "the
mother of laws." The word mag, however, meant great in Akka
dian, hence according to Hewitt the name Makkhu, the high priests
or Magi (vol. n, p. 54).

The Maya and Mexican fire altars and sockets and [their association with
the earth-mother and alligator in the native Codices has been discussed.
The Mexican day-sign cipactli figures an alligator and is associated with a
female deity. The alligator altar at Copan, is described on p. 2'28. Were
it not for limit of space additional testimony could be cited here, proving
that in Mexico the alligator was associated with the mother of the race,
the fire-socket, and was a tribal totem.

k'As the mother Maga she is the maker or kneader, the mother of
the building and constructing races .... they were the first
builders of towns . . . They adored the god of the twirling or
churning fire-drill. . . . They employed the name Ku, Ukko,
Pukka and Pukan to designate the rain and thunder god and star-
god who guides the stars in their courses and rules the beginning of
the year'' (Hewitt, p 438). The Finnic and Esthonian "Ukko is
also called Taivahan Napauen, meaning the navel of the heaven
and this is called the place of the pole star, the star at the top of
the heavenly mountain" (vol. u, p. 155).

Gadeira. The three cities of Rhodes were planned by Phoenician architects

The Assyrian character of early Greek art is due to its PhuMiician inspiration ....
It was about "B.C. GOO that these people penetrated to the northwest coast of India and
probably to the island of Britain as well .... They were the intermediaries of an
cient civilization .... and the chief elements of Greek art and civilization came from
Assyria through the hands of Phoenicians .... Phoenician art was essentially cath
olic .... it assimilated the art of Babylonia, Egypt and Assyria superadding some
thing of its own .... Their chief deity was Yeud or Ekhad=rthe Only One ....

they worshipped the Kabeiri .... originally seven stars who were the makers

of the world, the founders of civilization, the inventors of ships The cities of

Phoenicia were the first trading communities the world has seen. . . . Their colonies
were originally mere marts and their voyages of discovery were taken in the interests
of trade. The tin of Britain, the silver of Spain, the birds of the Canaries, the frankin-

cense of Arabia, the pearls and ivory of India, all flowed into their harbours

Many of their colonies were wholly independent, and governed by their own kings
and benefiting Plm-nicia only in the way of trade In Phoenicia . . . the king-
seems to have been but the first among a body of ruling . . . princes and . . . chiefs. In
time the monarchy disappeared altogether, its place being supplied by suft'etes or
' judges,' whose term of ottice lasted sometimes for a year, sometimes for more, some
times even Tor life . . . At Carthage there were two suffetes, who were merely pres
idents of the senate of thirty whose power was subsequently checked by a

board of one hundred and four . . . By providing that no member of the board should
hold office for two years running, Hannibal changed the government into a democ
racy. "

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENKIJAL. 521

Compare Ku in Maya list, appendix in, also Tezcatli-poca or puca =
Mexican fire-drill god, Ursa Major.

44 They worshipped Xag or Nagash, = the serpent and fire-drill
constellation of Ursa Major, and consequently called themselves
also the sons of Naga =. the Xahushas. They worshipped the
Pleiades = the mother stars "

The Nahuas traced ancestry to seven stars of Ursa Major and began
their religious year at the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight.

" The Nagas united with the navigating Shus or Phoenicians . .

. . . the red men, who worshipped the ruler of heaven

These Shus .... called in the North, Hus .... were the Su-
meriau trading races of the Euphratean delta and Western India,
who traced their descent to Khu, the mother bird of the Akkadi
ans, Egyptians and Kushites They reverenced the sacred

' shu ' stone, the begetter of fire and of life fostered by heat, . .
.... designated as the precious stone, the strong stone, the
snake stone, the mountain stone. . . The pregnant mountain of
the Shu stone was to the Akkadians the central point of the earth.
The people who are said in the Rig-Veda to have first found fire
by the help of Matarishoan, the fire-socket, and to have brought it
to men, and are said to have placed it in the navel of the world .
... as the sacred Shu stone."

It should be added here that the Hittite sign for Ishtar was a
triangle enclosing a stone: •' the mountain enclosing the stone of
life."

About 270 A. D. the Tutul-xius = (c/. Kuknl) under a great chief or lord
Kukulcan reigned at Chichen-ltza . . . .(p. 20G). In Mexico the name
for turquoise is xiuitl and the god of fire is named Xiuh-tecuhtli. Jadeite
is designated as chal-chiuitl and is associated with Chalchiuitlycue, the
mother-goddess. The spark-producing, flint knife = tecpatl is also em
ployed as a symbol of generation.

" Their kings, like those of Egypt, wore the imeus serpent as a
sign of royal authority and made this the emblem of kingly rank
in countries so widely distant from one another as India and
Egypt "

We learn from Prof. A. II. Sayce (Ancient Empires of the
East, p. 200), that customs that had originated in a primitive
period of Semitic belief survived in Phoenician religion and that
clear traces of totemisin are found amongst the Semites. kt Tribes
were named each after its peculiar totem, an animal, plant or

957

522 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

heavenly body David, for instance, belonged to the ser
pent-family, as is shown by the name of his ancestor Nahshon, and
Professor Smith suggests that the brazen serpent found by Heze-
kiah in the Solomonic Temple was the symbol of it. We find David
and the family of Nahash, k or the serpent,' the king of Ammon,
on friendly terms even after the deadly war between Israel and
Ammon, that had resulted in the conquest and decimation of the
latter."

The name of the culture hero Kukulcan or Qnetzalcoatl incorporates
the word serpent in Maya and Nahuatl. The conventionalized open ser
pent's jaw forms the usual head-dress of the lords sculptured on the Cen
tral American stelae and bas-reliefs. The existence of totemism in Ameri
ca is too well known to require comment, and the arbitrary method by
which it Avas established by the Incus of Pern, when they founded the
new colony, has been described.

". . . . I have already shown that the snake-father of the snake
races in Greece and Asia Minor and of the matriarchal races in
India was the snake Echis, or Achis, the holding snake, the Vritra,
or enclosing snake of the Rig- Veda, the cultivated land which gir
dled the Temenos. This was the Sanscrit and Egyptian snake
Ahi . . . But the Naga snake was not the encircling snake, but
the offspring of the house-pole and in this form it was called by
the Jews the offspring or Baal of the land. But as the heavenly
snake it was the old village snake transferred to heaven, called
the Nag-ksetra, or field of the Nags, and there it was the girdling
air-god who encircled the cloud mothers, the Apsaras, the daughters
of the Abyss, the Assyrian Apsa, and marked their boundaries as
the village snake did those of the holy grove on earth. But on
earth the water-snake was the magical rain-pole, called the god
Darka, set up by the Dravidian Males in front of every house . . ."
(p. 194) . "They are the Canaanites, or dwellers in the low country,
and the Hivites or the villagers of the Bible and the race of
Achseans of Greece. These are the sons of the Achis = the ser
pent, the having or holding snake, the girdling snake of cultivated
land which surrounded the Temenos or inner shrine, the holy grove
of the gods" (Hewitt, p. 175).

Attention is drawn here to the twin serpents which enclose the Mexican
Cosmical Tablet (fig. 56), whose bodies may be seen to consist of a rep
etition of the conventional sign for tlalli = land, consisting of a fringed
square. Each square in this case encloses a sign resembling that of fire
= tletl and the numeral ten. These girdling serpents, whose heads unite,
958

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 523

being directly associated with land, appear as the counterpart of the Old
"World Achis, a curious fact when it is considered that they arc repre
sented as springing from the sign Acatl (see p. 257).

On the other hand, the heavenly "feathered serpent" of Mexico and
Yucatan is(distinctly associated with the air and the circle; its concep
tion curiously coinciding with that of the "girdling air-god" mentioned
by Hewitt. It is well known that the walls enclosing the court of the
Great Temple of Mexico, were covered with sculptured serpents, and at
Xochicalco. Mexico, and in Central American ruins (Uxmal, for instance),
great sculptured serpents surround the buildings. It is remarkable that
the sign Acatl not only figures conspicuously on the Great American Tablet,
but also on the^allegorical ligure of the " Divine Serpent," which may
well represent the totemic divinity and ancestor of a snake tribe, associ
ated with the word Acatl, possibly conveying their name. The undeniable
association, in Mexico, of the serpent with Acatl, curiously agrees with
the name of the " sons of Achis, the serpent" = the Achaians: and de
serves consideration.

In the Genesis genealogy of the kings of Edom, the land of the
red man, the priest king of the Hus or Shus is mentioned ". . . .
his people had replaced the Tin1, the stone pillar, the Egyptian
obelisk by the temple, the home and symbol of the creating god,

who had been the pillar of the house But in their eyes the

father-god was not the central pillar but the two door-posts and
thence they called the temple gates Babel or the gates of god . . .

This gate was guarded by the hoi}7 twins The doorposts,

and night and morning are invoked in the Rig-Veda .... The
Magas were the discoverers of magic, mining, metallurgy, handi
crafts — the pioneers of scientific research and the first organizers of
a ritual of. religious festivals."

Twin pillars, sculptured in the form of great serpents, whose names
signify twinship, support the entrances to the ancient temples of Yuca
tan, Central America, and have been found on the site of the Great Tem
ple of Mexico. The Mexican and Maya accounts of the culture-hero
Quetzalcoatl-Kukulcan state that he and his followers wrere " great necro
mancers " and magicians and that they taught handicrafts, metallurgy, and
instituted calendar, social organization and ritual. A personal, close ex
amination of a large number of old Peruvian and Mexican as well as
Coptic textile fabrics, has convinced me moreover of their identity of
technique.

" The Magas sacrified dogs, . . . They wore longhair, . . . They
made human sacrifices in order to obtain rain" (Hewitt).

" The Phoenician priests scourged themselves or gashed their
arms and breasts to win divine favor. . . . Human sacrifices

959

5'24 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

were made, to Moloch or Milkom .... the parent was required
to offer his eldest or only son as a sacrifice and the victim's cries
were drowned by the noise of drums and flutes" (Sayce).

The human sacrifices of Mexico are familiar to all. The native dog
and various kinds of birds were sacrificed. The Mexican priests, named
papas, wore long hair, practised asceticism, gashed their breasts, arms
and legs and pierced their ears and tongues. On the Palenque bas-re
liefs, priests with long hair are sculptured. The human sacrifices of Mex
ico and those of Egypt, Phoenicia and- Assyria, described by Sayce and
Hewitt (pp. 275 and 348), are closely alike. See also Hewitt's account
of the blood brotherhood made between the sacrifice!1 and the land on
which the blood is poured (p. 196), and the Chichimec blood sacrifice de
scribed in the present work, p. (56.

The foregoing are a few noteworthy analogies which have
impressed themselves upon me during the present course of inves
tigation, in addition to the many undeniable and unsuspected evi
dences I have found, of an identity of star-cult, ritual and social
organization in Old and New World civilizations.

It will be seen that the outcome of my researches corroborates
the opinions differently expressed by a long line of eminent inves
tigators, who have been constantly discovering and pointing out
undeniable similarities and identities between the civilizations of
both hemispheres.

It seems to me that an accumulation of evidence now forces us
to face and thoroughly investigate the possibility that, from remote
antiquity, our continent and its inhabitants were known to the sea
farers of the Old World, to whose agency the spread of similar
forms of cult and civilization in the New World is to be assigned.

While those who uphold the autochthony of the native civilization
may regard such identities as accidental, those who are willing to
admit the possibility that the Phoenicians, the red men of antiquity,
whose land was Syria, navigating by the pole-star, may have
reached America, will doubtlessly dwell upon the unquestionable
fact that the most ancient traces of organized and settled commu
nities actually exist along the coast swept by the equatorial cur
rents. A glance at an ordinary chart exhibiting the ocean currents
and trade winds shows that vessels sailing southward from the
Canary Islands and caught in the north African current, might, at
a certain point, enter the north equatorial current flowing towards
the coast of America. Further southward still, off the coast of
Guinea, the current bearing this name meets the main equatorial
960

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 525

current which sweeps along the const of Honduras and Yucatan
into the Gulf of Mexico.

What is more, ancient well-known tradition asserts that the
culture-hero Kukulcan-Quetzalcoatl, with his followers, came to
Mexico from the East (via Yucatan) and told the natives of their
distant home, named Tlapallan and Iluehue tlapallan which, trans
lated, mean tc the red land" and "the great ancient red hind." Na
tive American tradition unquestionably and unanimously ascribes
to single individuals of aged and venerable aspect, or leaders of
small bauds of men and women of an alien race, the peaceable in-
tioduction of a definite plan of civilization, identical in its elements
with that known to have existed in India, Kgypt and Babylonia-
Assyria from time immemorial, and said to have been spread to
these countries by the Phoenicians.

Native tradition, therefore, is seen unanimously to controvert the
independent development of the cosmical schemes of government
and most advanced forms of civilization which prevailed in Amer
ica at the Columbian period. This, of course, in no wise excludes
the existence of purely native people, with a certain degree of civ
ilization, more rudimentary in form, founded on impressive natural
phenomena, which the natives had always been in a position to ob
serve for themselves.

In order to obtain an insight into conditions which might have
determined and affected maritime intercourse with distant America,
let us now make a rapid survey of the history of the ancient
civilizations of the Old World. This reveals, in the first case, the
undeniable fact (one of deepest significance in the light of the
present investigation) that the period of a general stirring of men's
minds, in countries where pole-star worship had prevailed from
time immemorial, exactly coincides with the period to which I al
luded on p. 43. during which there ceased to be a brilliantly con
spicuous and perfectly immovable pole-star in the northern heavens.

From Mr. II inckley Allen's work (p. 454), I have since learned
that astronomers have closely determined this period, and that Miss
Clerke writes of this : k% The entire millennium before the Christian
era may count for an interregnum as regards pole-stars. Alpha
Draconis had ceased to exercise that office ; and Alruccabah had
not yet assumed it." Prof. A. H. Sayce tells us that the Phoeni
cian pilots steered by the pole-star in remotest antiquity, and it is
a matter of history that "Pytheas of Massilia, the bold navigator
P.M. PAPERS i Gl 961

526 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

(died about 285 B. C.), showed the Greeks that the pole-8tar was
not at the pole itself." Previous to that date, however, the astron
omer-priests must have noted the change in the heavens. On
descendants of ancient pole-star worshippers, whose entire religion
and civilization were based on the idea of fixity and rotation, the
unaccountable change in the order of the universe must indeed have
produced a deep impression. Under such conditions it seems but
natural that a great awakening of doubt and speculation should
take place, that worship should be transferred from stars known to
be subject to change, to the unseen, incomprehensible but ever-
present eternal power which ruled the universe.

Let us examine some of the records of the great intellectual move
ment that swept at one time, like a wave, over the ancient centres
of civilization. The eighth, seventh and sixth centuries before our
era are marked by the growth of the Ionian philosophy which, as
Huxley tells us, " was but one of many results of the stirring of the
moral and intellectual life of the Aryan-Semitic population of West
ern Asia. The conditions of the general awakening were doubtless
manifold, but there is one which modern research has brought into
great prominence. This is the existence of extremely ancient and
highly advanced societies in the valleys of the Euphrates and the
Nile. . . The Ionian intellectual movement is only one of the
several sporadic indications of some powerful mental ferment over
the whole of the area comprised between the ^Egean and North
ern Hindustan "!

Professor Schroeder's statement that, " in the seventh century
B. C.,the idea of four, i. e. five elements, spread in India," is par
ticularly interesting in connection with the date assigned to the
birth of the Ionian intellectual movement. Of Pythagoras it is
related that, like Solon, "he had visited Egypt, also PluiMiicia and
Babylon, then Chaldean and independent, and founded a brother
hood originally brought together by a religious influence, with ob
servances approaching to monastic peculiarity, and working in a
direction at once religious, political and scientific." According to
the learned translator of Cicero's first Tusculan disputation2 " it
is generally accepted that Pherecydesof Syros (one of the Cyclades
islands in the^Egeau sea) was the teacher of Pythagoras. Phere-

1 Evolution and Ethics. Appleton ed. New York, 1890, p. 104.

2" Death no Bane," translation by Robert Black, M. A., Sampson L,o\v, Marston &
Co., London, 1889, p. 121, note.

962

CIVILIZATIONS IN (iENKRAL. 527

cycles, who flourished about B. C. 544 is said to have derived his
knowledge from the secret books of the Phoenicians and from
travels of inquiry in Egypt." Through Philoluus (see Grote iv, p.
395, note 2), Pythagorean science was made known to Plato,
whose views are quoted on p. 449. Grote states that, about
300 B. C., the Pythagorean philosophy nearly died out. It is a
curious fact that this date coincides, approximately, with the de
struction of Tyre (Tsar, in Phoenician, = the rock), the last
stronghold of the Phoenicians, "• which hsid defied Assyrian, Baby
lonian and Persian but at last fell," according to Prof. A. H. Sjiyce,
kt in July, B. C. 332, before the Greek conqueror Alexander. Thirty
thousand of its citizens were sold in slavery, thousands of others
massacred and crucified and the wealth of the richest and most lux
urious city of the world became the prey of an exasperated army.
Its trade was inherited by its neighbor Sidon" (op. cit p. 194). It
is obvious that, at this period, bands of fugitives may well have taken
refuge in traders' ships and sought safety in flight to distant regions,
where they might establish themselves and found colonies on the
pattern of Tyre or of Carthage which, in ancient times had also
been founded by fugitives and been named "• the new city," Kar-
thakhadasha (Sayce). While the great historical events which
marked the fourth century B. C. seem to have arrested the spread
of Pythagorean philosophy, we find that, according to Grote, "in
the time of Cicero, two centuries later, the orientalizing tendency,
beginning to spread over the Grecian and Roman world, caused it
to be again revived, with little or none of its scientific tendencies,
but with more than its primitive religious and imaginative fanati
cism. ... It was taken up anew by the pagan world, along with
the disfigured doctrines of Plato. Neo-Pythagorism, passing grad
ually into Xeo-Platonism, outlasted other more positive and mas
culine systems of pagan philosophy, as the contemporary and re
vival of Christianity " (op. eft. iv, 398). Neo-Platonism reached its
height under its chief Plotiuus (A. D. 205-270) who sought to rec
oncile the Platonic and Aristotelian systems with Oriental theoso-
phy. His pantheistic and eclectic school was the last product of
the Greek philosophy.1

1 .Merely as affording a glimpse of the troublous period during which Plotiuus lived,
I recall the fact that Caracalla, visiting Egypt, caused a large number of young men
to be massacred at Alexandria (A. D. 211). Between A. D. 248 and 208, Alexandria
was the seat of civil war for twelve years, and through war, famine and pestilence,
In a few years, about half of the population, not only of Alexandria, but of Rome,
perished. A general persecution of Christians was also carried on at this period,
and in A. D. 268 Zenobia invaded Egypt.

963

528 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

It is, at all events, remarkable, that the date tradition assigns to
the presence of Kukulcan in Yucatan and the foundation of the
quadruplicate state of Mayapan coincides with the dying out, in
Europe, of pagan philosophy, one of the features of which had been
the elaboration of ideal forms of government based on a numerical
and cosmical scheme, the elements of which had apparently been
spread by the Phoenicians. In Copan and Quirigua we find remnants
of long-established, peaceable communities revealing no trace of
war-like weapons, and the memorial stelae of whose rulers stand
above hidden cruciform vaults, while carved personages are repre
sented as seated in the centre of ornate crosses. In Yucatan,
through which land the foreign civilization seems to have reached the
plateau of Mexico, there are significant traces of an ancient city,
named Zilan, situated on the Atlantic coast ; proofs that build
ings of cosmical forms were erected ; that the state of Mayapan
was laid out on the familiar cosmical plan ; that repeated migrations
took place, nnd that, from time immemorial, a calendar, on the
same numerical basis as that of Mexico, had been in use. The
great state of Mayapan, where a remarkable stone cross was
found at Cozumel by the Spaniards, is shown to have been figured
as a circle within a circle, the whole divided into four parts by cross-
lines. Here, as in Chiapas and Mexico, all divisions of govern
ment, population and time are organized on a numerical scheme
representing the combination of 4 X 5 — 20 i. e. an entire finger
and toe count, " a whole man," with the 13 directions in space.
The multiplication of 13 and 20 results in a unit of 2GO which, as
a cycle of time, represents the complete set of all harmonious
combinations of man the miniature image of the living state, with
the thirteen directions of space in the all-embracing Cosmos, com
posed of four primary elements. In consonance with this we find
the existence of 20 (or 4X5) lords, whose names correspond to
those of the 4 chief and 16 minor day-signs of the calendar, and of
a lord by election, whose name signifies the thirteen divisions or
parts, and who constituted a microcosmos, a Four in One. In reg
ular rotation the 20 lords, consisting of 4 chief and 4 X 4 z= 1G =
minor rulers fulfilled duties towards the supreme representative
who resided in the capital, while they respectively lived in four
provinces, the population of which was subdivided into four tribes
each of the 20 divisions of the state being again divided into 13
parts.
964

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 529

In a cosmical state like this in which each individual not only felt
himself to be a unit and a microcosmos, but also an indispensable
part of a living organism, under the form of which the state was
symbolized, its inhabitants, leading lives regulated by a calendar
based on the phenomenon of circumpolar rotation, under a chief
ruler entitled the " Four in One," assisted by four sub-rulers, must
indeed have felt that they " lived, moved and had their being" in
the Teotl or Tlieos, imagined as the embodiment of the four ele
ments. In this connection it is interesting to learn that "the animal"
itself, of Plato, is considered by eminent authorities to have been
the tetrad.

In Zuiii, where, at the present day, each individual feels him
self identified with some part of the body of a quadruped, his clan
totem, the conception of the state as " a living animal," is an act
ual reality. Their pueblo moreover represents a 6 -|- 1 = 7, or a
tl seven in one," the miniature counterpart of the far distant Ooraon
village of Chota Nagpore and of the ancient archaic kingdoms of
India, Persia, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. Anciently
the ZuFiis called themselves the Ashiwi, a name remarkably like
that of the Ashvius, derived from the Akkadian ash = six.

I revert again here to the following landmarks, which may per
haps furnish a useful *k working hypothesis" for future investiga
tion. In Mexico the pyramids of Cholula and of Teotihnacan seem
to render testimony of the, possibly consecutive, establishment of
ideal states amongst tribes "capable of subjection" by Toltecas, or
l" Master-Builders," who, according to their method, used the build
ing of a great structure, requiring time and united labor, as a means
of organizing a new community or colony. It may be that the pe
riod of their completion coincided with the establishment of the
Calendar system, beginning with the number one.

In my Preliminary Note on the Ancient Mexican Calendar Sys
tem (Stockholm 1N94), I demonstrated how, by reconstructing the
Calendar cycles, it was possible to determine exactly when the na
tive system was adopted. According to my demonstration, which
has uowr stood unchallenged for six years, a fresh year cycle began
in 1507 A. D., with the year sign II Acatl and the day 2 cipactli.
For a cycle to be associated with the number two it is obvious that
it must have been preceded by a cycle ruled by number one, there
fore it may be safely inferred that the cycle II Acatl that com
menced in 1507 followed a cyclical period of 4 X 13 = 52 X 20 =

965

530 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

1040 years" (p. 32). Accordingly the date when the Mexican
system was instituted in the form which existed at the time of the
Conquest, may be fixed as corresponding to the year 467 of our era.

Considering that the Calendar system was, however, but one
part of the machinery of government, was inseparable from the or
ganization of tribes, classes and individuals, and that its institu
tion signified the foundation of a state, it is remarkable to ascer
tain that, but 137 years previously, Constantine, in A. D. 330, had
instituted the empire of New Rome, on precisely the same numerical
basis as that of the Mexican Calendar, and divided it into 4 parts
or prefectures, each subdivided into 13, yielding a total of 52 pre
fectures. Moreover, as far back as the institution of the Kleis-
thenean democracy, the Greeks had been familiar with an extremely
intricate and close union of calendar and government system, such
as existed in Babylonia-Assyria and, as I have shown, in ancient
Mexico.

It is certainly suggestive that the period of 137 years, which
elapsed between the establishment of New Rome on a partly re
vived and partly amended or remodelled plan, and the foundation
of the great democracy of ancient Mexico at the date inferred,
is unparalleled in the history of mankind for religious persecu
tions, carried on in Egypt, Greece and Rome, following upon three
centuries marked by the growth and spread of Christianity and the
persecution of its followers, the destruction of Jerusalem and the
persecution of the Jews. It wras in A. I). 379 that Theodosius,
the Greek, proclaimed Christianity the religion of his empire and
instituted a relentless persecution of the Arians and followers of
the ancient Egyptian religion.

Under Arcaditis, Emperor of the East (A. D. 395), the Anthro-
morphites, who aftirmed that God was of human form, destroyed
the greater number of their opponents. Under Marcianus (A. D.
451), Silco invaded Egypt with his Nubian followers and the
Council ol'Chalcedon condemned the Monophysite doctrine of Eu-
tyches. Later, under Justinian (A. D. 527), the Monophysites
separated from the Melchites and chose their own patriarch, being
afterwards called Copts.

It is impossible to close one's eyes to the fact that, during
this period of persecution and massacre, imminent peril of death
must have forced many a band of the priests and followers of the
ancient Egyptian and other religions to seek safety in flight. The
966

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 531

events which took place in Egypt between A. 1). 371) and 451, cul
minating in Silco's invasion, must unquestionably have been deeply
felt by the descendants of the ancient Phoenician, Carthaginian
and Grecian exiles, fugitives and mercenaries who, during count
less centuries, had founded colonies along the Libyan coast, and
pushed migration further westward along the coast line. Migra
tions from these regions would doubtless have resulted in the
remarkable combination of archaic star, fire-drill and socket wor
ship found in Yucatan and Mexico, existing alongside of a highly
developed and perfected philosophical scheme of social organiza
tion identical, in principle, with that which, in the Old World, con
stituted an ideal which was the result of centuries of experience
and active intellectual life.

The present investigation, in which I have collected more mate
rial than it has been possible to present in this publication, brings
out facts tending to show that, originally, both hemispheres were
peopled from the North, and that, in antiquity, at intervals, an ex
tremely limited intercourse was kept up between the Old and New
Worlds. The obvious fact that navigation must have been seri
ously impeded by the interregnum of Polaris, lasting for many
centuries, would explain a prolonged isolation of America anterior
to the Christian era. Whereas the equatorial currents facilitated
the voyage to America, the same favorable conditions did not ac
company navigation in the same latitudes in a reverse direction,
and this suggests the probability that few who set out for " the
hidden land," ever returned to the port whence they sailed. In
vestigation seems to reveal that influences, emanating from the
most ancient centres of Old World civilization, reached sundered
regions of America at different times, and that they could have
been carried there by a seafaring and building race such as the
Minyans, the Magus, the Phoenicians or their descendants.

If such were the case it would be reasonable to expect that, in
America, traces of words associated with the archaic set of ideas
would be found, and the same method of writing. Let us now
refer with prudent reservations as to the possibility of their being
accidental, to the striking resemblances which undoubtedly exist
between certain names for God, Heaven, North, Middle, etc., in
the languages of the most ancient civilizations of the Old World
and the Maya and Nahuatl. For convenient reference and without
detailed comment, these words are presented as Appendix III.

967

532 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

Too much importance must not, of course, be given to these lin
guistic analogies; at the same time we cannot shut our eyes to the
fact that these broken fragments of language, traceable to India,
Babylonia-Assyria, Egypt and Greece, are found, in America,
clinging tenaciously to a set of cosmical ideas and a scheme of

O O •'

organization identical in both hemispheres.

It has been surprising to me, for instance, to learn, by carefully
collecting facts, that whereas Professor Sayce tells us that the
supreme god of the Phoenicians was named Yeud or Kkhad, the
supreme god of the Mexican Chichimecs (literally, Red race) was
named Youalli-Khecatl, which signilies, literally, night-air or wind.
I likewise ascertained that, whereas the word yau or yu signifies
the source or origin in Chinese, is linked to a character forming a
cross and is homogeneous with Yaou Sing, a star in Ursa Major,
described as u revolving," the Mexican name for the pole star god
was Yaual or Yohual Tecuhtli, the lord of the circle or of the
night.

Again there is a remarkable similarity between the Mexican
yaualli = circle and the verb yoli or yuliz= to resuscitate or vivify ;
the Chinese ui z= to turn around, and the Scandinavian yul, yeul
or yol = wheel, also the festival of the winter solstice, when na
ture seemed to resuscitate. Whereas the significance of the above
Mexican, Chinese and Scandinavian names, is clear, no meaning
has, to my knowledge, been attached to the Semitic name for the
supreme god, which, as Professor Sayce informs us, was pro
nounced Yahu or Yaho or Yahve (see Appendix, list i).

Other striking resemblances are found between the names for
handicraftsman and master-builder in widely distant countries.
Thus, in Phrygia, we have the Daktuloi, the builders who erected
monuments decorated with cross-symbols arranged so as to form a
geometrical design, such as represented in fig. 72, 2. In Oaxaca
the Toltecatl:=builders and handicraftsmen, erected the walled tem
ple and cruciform structures at Mitla, and decorated them with
geometrical designs.

Reliable authorities teach us that "the Ilittites were the north
ern minyan or menyanz=measurers, a building race (Hewitt) ; that
Aha-Mena, the first historical ruler of Egypt, was a builder; that
the name of Amun, the god of the Ammonites, signified k'the
builder." Dictionaries reveal that, in America, Maya-speaking peo
ple designated a master builder or handicraftsman as all-men, or
9G8

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 533

menvah which, iuNahuatl, became amanteca. In Yucatan the name
for North was Aman or Xaman ; the building race of civilizers
seems to have been associated with that region, which the Ara
bians named Shamaliyy. In the Babylonian-Assyrian Shamash, the
Sanscrit Brahman and the Egyptian Amen-ra, we seem to have
but different forms of the same word, which recurs in the Akkadian-
Sumerian Sama, or an = the revolving heaven (see Appendix, list).

It is to philologists that I refer the question whether the resem
blances, in sound and meaning, of certain words I have found asso
ciated, in widely sundered countries, with the universal cosmical
set of ideas, are merely accidental or whether they furnish indica
tion of a remote common origin or of contact at a later period.
It will interest me particularly to learn their opinion as to the old
est forms of the words ; and whether there is really no clue to the
meaning of the Hebrew Yahu and the Phoenician Yeud-Ekhad.
One is tempted to inquire whether the Chichimecan Youalli-Ehecatl
was not the same and whether this and other analogies do not con
stitute evidence tending to establish that Mexico wras a Phoenician
colony in which during centuries of isolation the archaic forms and
meanings of Phoenician words were preserved.

It is my hope that these lists will be carefully examined and
explained by competent authorities, to whose judgment they are
respectfully submitted. Whether they will be accounted for in one
wray or another, these lists will be found to establish the existence
of striking resemblances which, by themselves, might not carry
weight, but which unquestionably gain in significance when found
in conjunction with cosmical conceptions, social organization,
forms of architecture and cross-symbolism, which appear universal.

A fewr words here concerning the undoubted general resem
blances that exist between the Chinese and Japanese, and Central
American methods of organization — resemblances which even ex
tend to certain words directly traceable to Western Asiatic influ
ence in the case of the Eastern Asiatic civilizations. The existence
of marked differences between the Chinese and Maya-Mexican nu
merical systems and determination of elements, appears to exclude
the possibility that dominating Asiatic influences could have reached
America via China and Japan after the still existing, crystallized
forms of government and calendar had been established in the lat
ter countries. As far as I can judge, the great antiquity attribu
ted, by Chinese historians, to the establishment of the governmental

969

534 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

and cyclical schemes, still in use, appears extremely doubtful.
Referring the question to Sinologists, I venture to ask whether it
does not seem probable that the present Chinese scheme dates
from the lifetime of Lao-tze, in the sixth century B. C., a period
marked, as I have pointed out, by the growth of Ionian philosophy,
one feature of which was the invention of numerical schemes ap
plied to "divine polities" and ideal forms of government. Future
investigation may, perhaps, prove that "the powerful mental fer
ment" alluded to by Huxley, as spreading between the eighth and
ninth centuries B. C., over the whole of the area comprised be
tween the ^Egean and North Hindustan, was caused by the growth
and diffusion of plans of ideal states, which would naturally sug
gest and lead to the formation of bands of enthusiasts, who would
set out in search of districts where they could carry out their prin
ciples and ideals.

Personally, I am strongly inclined to assign the origin of the
Chinese and the Mexican schemes, which are identical in principle,
to the same source, and to believe that they were carried in oppo
site directions, at different periods, by seafarers and colonists,
animated by the same purpose. Favorably established in distant
regions, both grew and flourished during centuries, constituting
analogous examples of an immense, submissive, native population
living under a highly perfected, artificial, numerical, scheme of re
ligious government, preserved intact and enforced by a ruling caste,
who possessed superior knowledge and claimed divine descent.

It is, of course, to Chinese and Japanese scholars and to archae
ologists, some of whom constitute the able staff of the Jesup Ex
pedition, who are investigating the question of Asiatic contact, that
I look for further information and enlightenment as to prehistoric
contact between China and America.1

The foregoing investigation seems to have shown that in all

1 To those of my fellow-workers who have made a special study of the most ancient
forms of cursive and ikonomatic writings of the Old World, I should like to submit
some facts concerning the ancient Mexican method, which may carry a fresh sugges
tion and be an aid to future research.

When the first Spanish missionaries who reached Mexico found themselves con
fronted by the barrier of language and wished to teach the native con verts the Lord's
Prayer in Latin, they adopted the method of picture writing employed by the aborig
ines. By painting a banner = pantli, a stone = tetl, a cactus = nochtli and another
stone =tetl, they conveyed the words Pa-te-noch-te, which, approximately, repre
sented paternoster. The consequence was that the Indians were able to memorize
prayers in a language unknown to them, by referring to pictures of objects and nam
ing these in their own tongue. A number of curious documents exist, which exhibit
970

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 535

countries alike, at one period or other, the cross-symbol or swas
tika expressed absolutely the same meaning. Primarily the record
of a year, which suggested the division of the heaven into four
parts, it had come to signify the establishment of communal life on
a basis of fixed law, order and harmony. Like the number four it
self which, in Pythagorean philosophy, is identified with wisdom
and justice " because it is the first square number, the product of
equals," the cruciform symbols have been the emblems of justice,
equality and brotherhood.

From the dawn of human history, the cross, therefore, appears
to have expressed a plan as simple as it was noble and great, which
consisted in peaceably uniting men, on principles of good-will, peace,
equity, equality and mutual help, of instituting and organizing com
munal life, and of regulating its activity in accord with the immu
table laws which govern the movements of celestial bodies, causing
the circumpolar constellations to assume opposite positions, forming
the sign of the cross, and marking seasons, days and years, all tes
tifying to the existence of a single, all-ruling, all-pervading, stable

a great difference and variety in execution and are more or less cursive, according
to the artistic sense and ability of the missionary or converted Indian who drew
them. The fact that Spaniards, possessing our mode of writing, should have found
picture-writing the most effective means of teaching primitive people speaking an
alien tongue has always appeared to me as most instructive and suggestive.

As the natives suggested this method to their instructors, it is obvious that it was
their habitual mode of memorizing a foreign language. The possibility that words
recorded in native pictography may belong to an alien tongue, opens out a new field
for future research. A curious result is obtained when Tenoch-Titlan, one of the
ancient names of the capital of Mexico is studied from this point of view. In the well-
known rebus now employed as the arms of Mexico, the syllables Te and Nodi only
are actually expressed in picture-writing by the stone = tetl, from which a cactus =
nochtli is growing. This group is, ho\vever, surmounted by an eagle holding a ser
pent in its talons and the meaning of this animal group appears symbolical merely.
It may be a curious coincidence that the eagle holding a serpent in its talons was
employed by Mediterranean people as an emblem of victory and occurs on ancient
Greek coins with this significance, and that the recorded name, Tenochtitlan or " the
land of Tenoch," curiously resembles Tenos, the name of a Greek heptarchy, founded
by seven tribes just as the adjacent town of Chalco, in Mexico, resembles Chalcis,
the town in Eubrva, where Aristoteles died.

On p. 41S and in my discussion of Egyptian hieratic script, I have pointed out that
some signs employed express the sounds of words in another tongue, that the sylla
bles am and an, for instance, seem indissolubly and universally linked to pole-star
worship and symbolism. It does not seem unreasonable to endeavor to explain this by
imagining that individuals, wishing, in each case, to teach the word ,sY/Hw = the revolv
ing heaven i. e. the North, to people speaking different languages, should make a
picture of a tree or boat named am in one tongue, and in another country, draw a
spider, named am, by its inhabitants. In the first country the tree, or boat, and in
the'second, the spider, would, in time, become the symbols of the north, and though
different, signify the same thing. In time, each sign might be employed to express the
syllable am in general and in this way isolated systems of ikonomatic writing would

971

536 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIKNT

and eternal central power, who thus controlled not only the heavens
but, by a human representative, the earthly kingdom, laid out on
the celestial plan.

Considering that no less an authority than St. Augustine has
asserted ''that which is now called the Christian religion existed
among the ancients, and in fact was with the human race from the
beginning," it is permissible to ask whether the above scheme does
not strikingly substantiate his dictum, afford a deep view under the
surface of accumulated dogma and a perception of the mighty prin
ciple that has been at work from the beginning of all things and
was understood by many at that time when "the people that satin
darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and
shadow of death light sprang up.." . . ''From that time Jesus be
gan to preach and say, fc Repent : for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand'" (Matthew iv, 16, 17). Adopting the cross as the emblem

evolve and, in course of time, native artists would more or less skilfully produce con
ventionalized and distinctly characteristic forms and methods.

At the same time the colonizing race might be employing and perfecting a totally
different form of cursive writing for their own purposes of registration, etc. For
instance: in Athens, where Euclid held an archonship in 40)5 B.C. and, during cen
turies, Pythagorean philosophers identified " earth with a cube, fire with a pyramid,
air with an octahedron, water with an icosahedron, and the Sphere of the Universe with
a dodecahedron," and also taught that a point corresponds with the monad, both being
indivisible; a line with the duad, etc., it is obvious that points, lines and geomet
rical figures must have been employed for the cursive registration of ideas. In
a state, firmly established on fixed principles of numbers, the cursive registration of
its subdivisions, by means of numbers only, was rendered possible and in such a com
munity the necessity for cursive writing would be limited and perhaps be confined to
the registration and identification of individuals, the reports of quantities of produce,
etc..

The facts that the letters of the Greek alphabet possess fixed numerical values, and
that the initial letters only of their tribal names were inscribed on the shields of Lac
edaemonian, Sicyonian and Alessenian warriors, for instance, appear to indicate that,
at one time, each Greek tribal division possessed its cursive mark, a letter, which may
have indicated, at the same time, a numerical division of the confederacy. To un
derstand such cursive records it is evident that a knowledge of the numerical basis
of the state would be indispensable and imperative and that this would be confined
to the rulers only. My opinion that the Maya calculiform hieroglyphs constitute cur
sive notation relating entirely to the calendrical and governmental cyclical system
and absolutely unintelligible without a knowledge of this, has already been partially
referred to on pp. 242 and 244. From Mexican manuscripts, where individuals, by
means of a number and a calendar sign, are linked to a division of the state, I hope
yet to be aide to clearly demonstrate the practical harmonious working of a machin
ery of state, established on a perfected numerical scheme, the cursive notation of
which was extremely simple.

Meanwhile I offer the foregoing remarks as suggestions for future research and as
an expression of my opinion that people, using geometrical and numerical cursive
methods of notation in their own country, may have systematically employed the pic-
tographic method in teaching their language to strangers and in establishing their
civilization in foreign lands.

972

CIVILIZATIONS IX GEXEKAL. 537

of his earthly mission he said : "If any man will come after me,
let him take up his cross and follow me." By the words : " I
bear in my body the mark of the Lord Jesus," St. Paul designates
the recognized " mark " to have been the quadruplicate cross of
the Saviour, who charged his apostles to preach, saying : "the king
dom of heaven is at hand " and promised them that " ye which
have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall
sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew xix, 28). The
mother of Zebedee's children came unto him asking that her sons
might sit " the one on thy right hand and the other on thy left, in
thy kingdom" (Matthew xx, 20). Repeatedly, the Teacher, refer
ring to children, said "of such is the kingdom of heaven," or "Ex
cept ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven." St. Paul and his followers were
designated as "those that have turned the world upside down
. . . doing contrary to the decrees of Csesar, saying that there is
another king, one Jesus" (Act.s xvn, 6 and 7).

It is well known that the early Christian church was persecuted
because, from the first, it preached a total regeneration of human
society and its reestablishment of a basis of peace and good-will,
social equality, absolute justice, mutual aid, respect and sympathy,
unselfish, disinterested subservience of the individual to the inter
est of the community.

It was for the sublime principle of a religious democracy and
the regeneration of human society that, in an age of tyranny, op
pression and bloodshed, the early Christian martyrs laid down their
lives. The foundations of religious orders were as many attempts
to realize the Christian ideal, and to this day the Roman Catholic
Church, whose clergy and religious orders unquestionably afford a
splendid living example of devotion to a common cause, self-abne
gation, obedience and humility, clings to the ideal of a state in
which temporal power is wielded by a hierarchy raised to rulership
from all ranks, merely by virtue of personal, moral and intellectual
qualities. Throughout the Christian church the ideal of religious
democracy prevails. Each day it is prayed for in the words "Thy
kingdom come," by those taught to look forward to the promise of
the time when " former things are passed awray and a holy Jerusa
lem shall descend out of heaven from God, lying four-square, with
twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels and names written

973

538 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

thereon which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children

*of Israel and the wall of the city had twelve foundations

and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, ....
. . . And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty

and the Lamb are the temple in it but the throne of God

and of the Lamb shall be in it And he showed me a

pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it
and on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bore
twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. ..."
(Revelation, chaps, xxi and xxn).

It appears significant, in the light of the present investigation,
that the birth of Christianity, as well as the revival of pagan sys
tems of philosophy, embodying principles for the organization of
religious brotherhoods and ideal democracies, should coincide with
the spread of the great tidings that a star had been seen by the
Magi, or "wise men of the East, who came from the east to Jeru
salem." Occurring, as it did, after u the interregnum as regards
pole-stars," during which nomadic tribes and seafarers had vainly
sought the fixed star which had guided their forefathers, the ap
pearance of a brilliant pole-star must have seemed doubly signifi
cant and revived, among pagan philosophers, the ideal of an earthly
kingdom ruled by Heaven. The advent, at this time, of the Mes
siah who, with his twelve disciples, announced that the kingdom of
heaven was nigh and taught that God was to be worshipped in the
Spirit only, must indeed have appeared particularly impressive and
well-timed.

Faithfully clinging to the ideal of a regenerated religious democ
racy, the early Christian church maintained itself through centuries
of persecution and is slowly advancing, amidst almost overwhelm
ing and innumerable difficulties, towards its realization.

Returning to Mexico we find that its civilization at the time of
the Conquest was precisely what might be expected if a small body
of men of superior wisdom and experience, such as was possessed
by a remnant of Gmeco-Egyptian philosophers, had embarked in
ships manned by the descendants of Phoenician seafarers, and found
refuge in the ''land of the West," amongst simple, docile people,
existing in large numbers, who, treated " as little children and
instructed with love and gentleness, willingly submitted themselves
to the guidance of their teachers." A single, short-lived generation
974

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 539

of these would have limply sufficed for the establishment of the
governmental system and calendar, the firm institution of a "celes
tial kingdom," and the spread of knowledge of the technique of
various arts and industries deemed most useful to the natives. On
the other hand, the foreign element, whose aims were chiefly ideal,
could have left little or no impression upon the evolution of the
native race, its art and industry, which doubtlessly followed its
original independent line of development.

It is remarkable how the echo of great events in Old World
history seem to have reached the Western hemisphere. In the Old
"World the eleventh and twelfth centuries were marked by a revival
of religious enthusiasm, by the Crusades, the persecution of infi
dels by the Christian world and by a general stirring amongst ori
ental people, the descendants of the ancient pole-star worshippers.

Historical records and traditions accord in stating that in about
the eleventh and twelfth centuries of our era, the civilizations of
Mexico, Yucatan and Central America underwent a great period of
warfare, pestilence and famine, leading to the disintegration of the
great ancient centres, to numberless migrations, and to an assump
tion of dominion in Mexico by a fierce warrior-race who increased
the number of human sacrifices. It seems significant that it is to
this troublous period in the history of ancient America that the ad
vent of the Incas in Peru is assigned by native tradition, which
also records the existence of more ancient centres of civilization
situated around the Titicaca lake. The foundation of the Jnca em
pire is assigned to as late as about 1200 A.D. (see p. 148, note 1),
and all who compare Plato's scheme for the reestablishment of the
holy polity of the Maguetes, and the description of the Peruvian
" Four in One " state, must admit that the latter constitutes the
most perfect example known, of a community based on those nu
merical principles which were considered most perfect by Plato.
At a first glance one might be tempted to conclude that the foreign
civilizers of Peru, the Incas, were acquainted with Plato's twelve
fold scheme and deliberately established or reestablished a ''divine
polity " accordingly, naming it the kt Four in One " and instituting
the worship of a supreme divinity designated as tk Earth, Air,
Fire and Water in One," in consonance with the cosmical theory
said to have been first formulated by Empedocles about B. C. 444,
and adopted by Plato. Reflection shows, however, that no such
conclusion is justifiable until competent authorities have thoroughly

975

540 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

investigated and satisfactorily established how far the ideas of
Empedocles and Plato were original and ho\v far they incorporated
older philosophical ideas, such as were preserved by the Egyptian
priesthood or had been disseminated by the Phoenicians.1 Never
theless it is an undeniable fact that the Inca colony constitutes a
most valuable object-lesson of a " cosmical state " founded on
precisely the numerical scheme and principles of organization ad
vocated by Plato. Reflection shows, moreover, that such a polity
could only have been established and maintained itself during cen
turies, in a laud free from enemies and amongst docile people "apt
for subjection."

A significant result of a critical comparison of the celestial
kingdoms of Peru and Mexico is the perception that, in the former,
as in Egypt, a hereditary sovereignty was exercised by male and
female sacerdotal rulers of a "divine line of descent." On the
other hand we find, in Mexico, a state of affairs in exact accordance
with Montezuma's account of the behavior of his predecessors to
wards the lord who had led them and presided over the foundation
of the Mexican empire. During his absence they, his vassals, es
tablished democratical principles and when he returned, haviug in
termarried with women of the country and founded new cities, they
refused to recognize his authority and let him depart. From Mon-
tezuma himself we learn that, although they thus emancipated
themselves from their former lord, they continued to regard them
selves as dependent and owing allegiance to the mother-city whence
they had come. Until the time of the Conquest, however, they

1 It is particularly interesting to learn from Professor Sayce (op. cit. p. 188), not
only that Phoenician culture had been introduced among the rude tribes of Israel,
but that the temple of Jerusalem was built by Phoenician artists after the model of a
Phoenician one, the main features of which were the two columns or cones at the en
trance and the brazen sea or basin, which rested on twelve bulls, this number agree
ing with the number of Israelitic tribes and with tribal or caste divisions in other
ancient centres of civilization. It is thus certainly suggestive to find the number
twelve associated with the Phoenicians, to whom the spread of civilization in the Old
World is attributed and whose predecessors, at the period of Babylonian culture,
were, according to Professor Sayce, " solitary traders, who trafficked in slaves, in
purple-fish .... and whose voyages were intermittent and private."

..." Diodorus Siculus assigns to the Carthaginians the knowledge of an island in
the ocean, the secret of which they reserved for themselves as a refuge to which they
could withdraw should fate ever compel them to desert their African home. It is far
from improbable that we may identify this obscure island with one of the Azores,
which lies 800 miles from the coast of Portugal. Neither Greek nor Roman writers
make any reference to them, but the discovery of numerous Carthaginian coins at
Carvo, the northwesterly island of the group, leaves little room to doubt that they
were visited by Punic voyagers."— Sir Daniel Wilson. The lost Atlantis and other
ethnographic studies. New York, 1892.

97G

CIVILIZATIONS IX GEXEKAL. 541

were governed by rulers whom they elected, and who had risen in
rank merely by virtue of their moral and intellectual distinction.

It is indeed deeply suggestive and impressive to realize that, in
antiquity as in modern times, the American Continent seems to
have been sought, as a place of refuge, by men whose ideals have
been state institutions founded on democratic principles. The
ancient polities of Mexico and Peru and, what is more, the archaic
Pueblos of to-day, alike furnish examples of conditions, such as
undoubtedly existed in Mediterranean countries in ancient times
and inspired Greek statesmen and philosophers to plan ideal poli
ties, and must have preceded the creation of the Jewish and early
Christian spiritualized ideal of a Xew Jerusalem, pervaded through
out by the Divine Spirit. In conclusion, there are a few points
which I recommend to the consideration of students. Different
writers have, as Prescott summarizes, with certainty discerned in
the highest American civilizations, a Semitic or an Egyptian or an
Asiatic origin.

This remarkable combination of features, distinctively character
istic of the said civilizations, actually existed amongst the Phce-
nicians who, as Professor Sayce relates, were allied to the Semitic
race, were affected by contact with their cousins the Arameans or
Syrians, penetrated to the coast of India, derived their art from
Babylonia, Egypt, and later from Assyria, and il knew how to
combine together the elements it had received and to return them,
modified and improved, to the countries from which they had been
borrowed." In the case of India and China it is an established
and accepted truth that an active communication existed between
these countries and Asia Minor, which was carried on by a race of
seafarers and colonists. When it is realized that, through them,
distant regions became known and accessible, and that at one time
in the history of Greek philosophy, for instance, statesmen, phil
osophers and mathematicians alike rivalled each other in plan
ning ideal states, based on the identical principle : the harmonizing
of human life with Nature's laws ; it seems but rational to infer
that, at different times, bands of enthusiasts, adopting one numer
ical scheme in preference to another, and led perhaps by its in
ventor or disciples, set out in search of distant countries where
they could undisturbedly establish k' celestial kingdoms" accord
ing to their ideal plan. To such an enterprise as this I venture to
assign the establishment of the celestial kingdom of China, draw-
p. M. PAPEHS i G2 977

542 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

ing attention to Biot's statement, cited on p. 298, that year cycles
(i. e. the sociological and chronological system since in use) were
introduced there from India, after the Christian era. This being
the case, contrary to the claims of a much greater antiquity by
Chinese scholars, the present form of the "celestial kingdom"
appears to date from the arrival in China, from Persia, of Semitic
emigrants, during the first century of our era (see p. 303), and to
have undergone a certain re-rnodeUing in the first half of the sixth
century, after the arrival of a band of Syrian Christians (p. 304).
Pointing out that these dates would make it appear as though
the cyclical systems of India and Eastern Asia had been formulated
under the direct or indirect influence of Greek philosophy, I ob
serve that the date of their introduction and establishment assigns
them to approximately the same period which produced the nu
merical scheme adopted by Constantine, Maya and Mexican calen-
drical and chronological scheme. At the period when Constantine
established New Rome and instituted four divisions of the empire,
each divided into thirteen yielding a total of fifty-two prefect
ures, there lived in Byzantium a philosopher and rhetorician (315-
390 A. D.) whose name was Themistius and who filled the office
of prefect of Constantinople. It is well known that the attempt
thus to organize the empire proved fruitless and that the proclama
tion of Christianity as the religion of his empire by Theodosius I
(379 A. D.) inaugurated a prolonged persecution of pagan religion
and philosophy (see p. 530).

Is it inadmissible to consider at least the possibility that, disap
pointed and driven from their land, some of those who clung to the
ancient ideal, and were acquainted with the perfected scheme of
state organization instituted by Constantine during the lifetime
of Themistius, carried it at a later period, to the "hidden land" of
the West and established it there, where it was preserved intact
until the time of the Spanish Conquest? Is it by accident only
that one of the names of the capital of ancient Mexico, as pre
served in the writings of Cortes and Bernal Diaz is Temistitan,
literally "laud of Temis," the Nahuatl language not furnishing
any meaning to the latter word? Can it be that, just as the word
Teotl, resembling Theos, is found on Mexican soil, employed with
the same meaning as in Greek, the name Temistitan means "the
land of established law, order and justice" dedicated to the Greek
Themis, just as New Rome was dedicated to Sofia = Wisdom ? Or
978

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 543

did some sort of connection exist between the name of the Mexi
can capital, the system on which it was established and the phil
osopher Themistius?

Is it by chance merely that the state calendar of Temistitan was
based on 4 X 13 = 52 divisions, and that Themistius of Byzan
tium, a member of that school of philosophy which had evolved
numberless plans and numerical schemes for ideal states, should
have held one jf the 4 X 13 = 52 prefectures during Constantino's
reign? In order to make the most rapid advance towards a solu
tion of the great problem of the origin of American civilizations, I
venture to suggest that Orientalists and Americanists should com
bine and freshly study it from opposite points of view. One side
might be taken by those who incline to admit the possibility that
a few Phoenician traders discovered the American continent in
ancient times and that, subsequently, those to whom they imparted
their discovery and their successors, the daring Greek navigators,
conveyed thither, at intervals, bands of refugees or enthusiasts who
braved danger and death, in the hope of reaching the blessed land
where, free from persecution, they could found ideal democracies
or divine polities.

Besides studying and adding to the numberless similarities which
have been cited by so many different authorities and to which I
have added a modest contribution, let them produce evidence show
ing the improbability that the identical forms of cult, religion,
social organization, calendar cycles and numerical schemes should
have been independently evolved two or more times by distinct
races. On the other hand, let those who hold the view that Ameri
can civilization was purely autochthonous, advance grounds for the
supposition that it developed a school of philosophical speculation
and that America produced its Empedocles and its Plato. Let
them also formulate the psychical law which caused the American
race to formulate the four elements, recognized as such by the phil
osophers of India and Greece, and not the five of Chinese philoso
phy ; and to evolve numerical schemes applied to social organiza
tion, identical with those current in India, Western Asia and
the Mediterranean countries, but different from that employed in
China and Japan. It will also be incumbent upon them not only
to disprove American traditions, which record the introduction of
a higher civilization and plans of social organization by strangers,
but also to demonstrate that, although in ancient times, Phoenician

Q7Q
y • *j

544 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

traders carried on an active traffic with Britain, daring the perils
of the Bay of Biscay, they could not possibly have ventured across
the southern Atlantic, even in the most favorable seasons. It has
remained a source of sincere regret to me that circumstances pre
vented my attending the Orientalist Congress which met at Rome,
in October, 1899, under the presidency of the illustrious Count
Angelo de Gubernatis, to whom credit is due for having first sug
gested and planned that a section of the Congress should devote
itself to the discussion of prehistoric contact or connection between
the Old and New Worlds.

With an apology for my non-attendance and consequent failure
to aid in organizing the section and carrying out a plan which met
witli my enthusiastic approval, I venture to submit the present
investigation to the President and officers of the Orientalist Con
gress with the earnest hope that it may contain material and
suggestions for fruitful discussions during the next Congress held,
and that these-may be carried on in a section devoted to the con
sideration of facts relating to prehistoric America and its relation
to the Old World.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.

In the preceding pages the view is advanced that the ancient
cross-symbol or swastika was first used by man, presumably in
circumpolar regions, as a record of the opposite positions assumed,
by circumpolar constellations, in performing their nocturnal and
annual circuit around Polaris. Employed as a year sign in the
first case, the cross or swastika later became the symbol of the
Four Quarters, of quadruplicate division and of a stable central
power whose rule extended in four directions and controlled the
entire Heaven.

At some remote period of antiquity man developed the idea of
social organization and, in India, ancient Egypt and Babylonia-
Assyria, actual proofs exist that the earliest cities and states were
divided into four quarters, a division involving the distribution of
the population into four tribes under a central chief. Wherever this
division was carried out, it represented an attempt to harmonize
human society and the establishment of the ideal of a religious
democracy, founded on principles of law, order, justice, peace and
good will. The pyramid, a primitive form of which consisted of
four stories, and cruciform sacred structures, may be regarded as
980

CIVILIZATIONS IN C.KNERAL. 545

monuments commemorating a cosmical and territorial organization
into four parts. The more extended conception of seven directions
in space, consisting of the Above and Below, or Heaven and Earth,
the Four Quarters and the sacred Middle, the synopsis of all, was
also evolved. In the confederations of India and Iran, and Arabia,
in the seven-storied towers of Babylonia, and in the division of
the Egyptians into seven classes, we find the earliest traces of a
practical application of this numerical division.

The ancient historical records of Egypt and Greece reveal that,
in the earliest polities, the population was divided into groups con
sisting of a fixed number of individuals, officially represented by
chieftains, or officers of the state, and that, in consequence, a state
formed a unit, constituted according to a mathematical scheme,
which was also applied to the regulation of time. Each officer of
the state held office for a fixed term, in a prescribed order of rota
tion. The year was divided into a fixed number of seasons, marked
by the positions of a circumpolar constellation, and this therefore
appeared to regulate not only the cycle of time but the govern
mental rotation of office and the entire activity of the community.
Starting from a common basis of quadruplicate division in different
countries, a great variety of constitutions of state was independ
ently invented by statesmen and philosophers, who devised cycles
produced by different combinations of numbers and signs, the ob
ject being to regulate time and communal life in imitation of the law,
order and harmony existing in the motion of the stars and under the
guidance of a supreme ruler, the earthly representative of Polaris.

The origin of these ideas and governmental scheme, in the Old
World, is assigned by competent authorities to a northern race
which had discovered the art of fire-making and evolved a religious
cult and ritual suggested by it, in association with pole-star wor
ship. Their civilization is supposed to have been developed by con
tact with a southern race, in Phrygia, and to have been carried at a
remote period by their seafaring descendants to India, Asia Minor,
Egypt and beyond the pillars of Hercules, to European countries,
situated on the Atlantic.

The present investigation brings into prominence the fact that,
just as the older Andean art closely resembles that of the early
Mediterranean, an observation first made by Prof. F. W. Putnam,1

1 Address of the retiring President of the A. A. A. 8., Columbus meeting, 1899. Pro
ceedings of the A. A. A. 8., vol. XLVIII, to which the render is referred for valuable
data.

981

546 KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT

so the fundamental principles, numerical scheme and plan of the
state founded by the foreign Incas in Peru, resembled those for
mulated by Plato in his description of an ideal state.

It is a remarkable fact, on which the writer lays utmost stress,
that, whereas there is a marked difference between the Chinese and
the Mexican and Peruvian divisions of the elements and numerical
cycles, the American systems exactly agree with those propounded
by Greek philosophers and said to have reached them from more
ancient centres of culture, presumably through the Phoenicians.
On the other hand, there undoubtedly exist remarkable analogies
between the Chinese and Hindu and Mexican sociological, chro
nological, cyclical systems, their principles being precisely the
same. These close analogies as well as the marked divergences
which have been noted can only be satisfactorily accounted for
by the assumption that each of these countries derived their civili
zation from the same source. Over and over again different writers
have pointed out undeniable analogies and resemblances between
the highest forms of American civilization and that of China, India,
Asia Minor, the Mediterranean and Western European countries.
At the same time modern research has shown that the seafarers,
whom we shall conveniently designate as the Phoenicians, acted as
the intermediaries of ancient Old World civilization and formulated
a culture which incorporated and formed a curious compound of
elements drawn from different countries and people.

While investigation, moreover, reveals that the conquest of
Phoenicia and intermittent periods of warfare and persecution
directed against the religion and democratic principles of its peo
ple, must have furnished the most powerful incentive for them to
extend their voyages of discovery and seek distant lands where
colonies might be established. It is obvious that, if safe places
of refuge were found, their existence would remain a secret and
that, in course of time, a complete isolation of distant colonies
would result.

Considering that it would be premature to formulate a final con
clusion on a subject which demands so much more investigation,
I merely observe here that, as far as I can see, the conditions
which existed and survive amongst the aborigines of America
would be fully accounted for by the assumption that they received
certain elements of culture and civilization from Mediterranean
seafarers who, at widely separated, critical periods of Old World
982

CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL. 547

history, may have transported refugees and would-be colonists or
founders of ideal republics and " divine polities" to different
parts of the hidden or divine land of " the West," the existence of
which was known by tradition to the Egyptain priesthood.

Under such circumstances it is apparent how the American Con
tinent could have become an isolated area of preservation where
archaic and primitive forms of civilization, religious cult, symbo
lism and industries, drawn at different epochs, from various, more
or less important centres or from the outposts of Old World cul
ture, would be handed down, transformed through the active and
increasing influence of the native elements. The latter must
always have been markedly predominant since it must be as
sumed, if at all, that the number of individuals who reached
America, and the subsequent duration of their lives, must have
been extremely limited. What is more, as Montezuma related
that the colonists, from whom he descended, married native women,
it is obvious that, from the outset, foreign and native influences
were combined.

There was one main element, however, underlying both foreign
and native civilizations, which formed the basis of both, united and
made them as one, namely, the recognition of fixed immutable laws
governing the universe, attained, by both races, by long-continued
observation of Polaris and the " Northern" constellations.

To me the most precious result of the preceding investigation is
the gradual recognition that the entire intellectual, moral and relig
ious evolution of mankind has been the result of the fixed laws
which govern the universe. From the time when our world began
to revolve in space, at intervals, a luminous point of fixity in
space has existed and an unknown force, irresistible as that which
controls the magnetic needle and gyrostat,1 appears to have raised

1 "Professor Perry, F. R. S., in his admirable monograph on Spinning Tops,1 shows
how a spinning gyrostat whose spinning axis is compelled by the experimenter into
a horizontal plane is then constrained by the earth's motion alone to direct its spin
ning axis due north and south and so to indicate mathematically the lie of the true
meridian of its spot. If the spinning gyrostat be next shut off from all other motion
except a vertical one in the plane of this meridian, its spinning-axis will point its north
end up to, and continue to point truly up to, the celestial pole." Then, adds Professor
Perry, in terms strangely suitable to my purposes : " It is with a curious mixture of
feelings that one first recognizes the fact that all rotating bodies, fly-wheels of steam-
engines and the like, are always tending to turn themselves towards the Polestar;
gently and vainly tugging at their foundations, all the time they are in motion, to get
round towards the object of their adoration."

1 Romance of Science: Spinning Tops, by Professor John Perry, M.E., D.Sc., F. R. S., 1890, pp. 107-110,
1-2-13, cited by O'Xeil, op. cit., p. 540.

983

548 'KEY-NOTE OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS IN GENERAL.

the mind of man from ignorance and darkness and guided bis foot
steps towards a higher scale of existence and a more elevated con
ception of a supreme central power.

From this, amongst favored races, the higher conception of an
invisible supreme deity seems to have been gradually developed by
the human mind, as it rose in the scale of spiritual evolution. To
many, the idea that it was the observation of the stars and the rec
ognition of the fixity of Polaris which first led man to realize the
existence of immutable laws, and of a supreme celestial power
ruling the universe and to form the sacred sign of the cross, will
appear as the fulfilment of the text in Genesis, which expressly
mentions as the first, and therefore chief, purpose for which the
lights in the firmament were created, that k ' they should be for

•s'fyw.s and portents, for seasons, for days and years and

for lights."

When we realize that all revolving spheres in space, and the
beings that may live upon them, have been, are, or shall be subject
to the same conditions as govern our tiny world, forcing their in
tellectual evolution to proceed in parallel lines to ours, we are
compelled to recognize the existence of One Great Plan, and to ren
der reverent homage to the Master-Architect of the Universe.

084

APPENDIX J.

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF SOME QUECHUA, NAHUATL AND
MAYA WORDS.

QUKCHUA.

hatun = great.

pacha =time, name of
annual harvest fes
tival.

NAHUATL.

huey = great,
pachtli = name of an
nual harvest festival.

3Tacu and mm = water. atl = water.

pihi-huy = first born.

all = good.

ycacha = frequenta
tive.

ahua — to spin or
weave.

ahua-ycacha = to spin
continuously.

ticpac = to lie month
upwards.

ticnu = the zenith.

pil-conetl = infant son
pilli = nobleman, or

son.
pilhua = he who has

sons,
pilli = the fingers.

qualli = good.

mala-cachoa, verb, to
spin or twist or turn
something around
continuously.

malacatl = spindle,
icpac = to be on the

top of something

high,
ticatla = midnight.

MAYA.

pax = name of festi
val in which prayers
were offered to ob
tain abundant har
vest.

haa = water,
aak = moist,
aakal = lagoon,
yachhaa = canal,
stream of water.

985

550

APPENDIX.

QUECHUA.

cosca = things that
are alike, necklace.

NAHUATL.

cozcatl=beads, strung
precious stones,
metaphorically used
to designate one's
children.

MAYA.

maqui or maki=hand.
makip-pampa = palm

of hand,
pampa = name for

plain.

maitl = hand,
macpalli = palm of

hand,
pan = affix, meaning

upon, above.

kab=hand.
tankab=palm of hand.

humihua = small ves
sel.

hunu and huni = a
number, a division
of men, ten thou
sand (Markham).

hunu = all.

palla = woman of no
ble birth.

pallca = the fingers, or
branches of a tree
(Chinchaysuyo dia
lect).

comitl = earthen
vessel.

tlapalli-eztli=nobility
of blood or lineage
(metaphor).

tlapalli = color or
dye.

tlapaloloni — worthy
of being reverenced
and saluted.

tlapaliui —able-bodied,
marriageable young
man.

atlapalli = wing of a
bird, leaf of tree.

cuitlapilli, atlapalli ==
metaphor signifying
the people and ser
vants of the state,
literally the tail and
wing of a bird.

cum = earthen vessel.

hooch = vessel in gen
eral.

him = one.
hunkinchil = one
count = 10 X 100,000.

pal, pa'al, palal, palil=
child, boy, servant.

986

APPENDIX.

551

It is quite obvious bow this metaphor came to be employed. The words
for tail and wing respectively terminate with pilli the word designating
nobleman, the upper class, and palli, signifying the lower class, women,
boys, servants. The head of the bird signified the chief and the two
eyes and two halves of the beak conveyed the idea of duality, or two in
one.

There are indications that the right foot, with its four claws, symbol
ized the four chief rulers of the Above and the left foot the four rulers
of the Below.

The control of the feet and entire body was, of course, assigned to the
head. It is only when the full metaphorical significance of the eagle, as
an emblem of the state, is understood, that the meaning of the eagle in
the arms of Mexico and the native bird symbolism begin to become ap
parent. I have shown that in Peru and Yucatan the wrord for head was
synonymous for chief. It remains to be ascertained how far the same
symbolism prevailed throughout the American Continent and whether in
other cases the words for bird, wings, tail and claws are homonyrnous or
synonymous for the state and its divisions. Amongst the Zunis the State
and entire scheme of organization is associated with the imaginary form
of a quadruped and in Mexico there are indications that at one time the
human form was regarded as an emblem of the State and its subdivi
sions. This subject is referred to more fully in the text.

QUKCHUA.

Uira-cocha = name of
mythical personage
and title of Creator.

Uira?

occha = abyss.

NAHUATL.

In the native harangues
the Supreme Being is
referred to as being
like an unfathomable
abyss.

ixachicatlan = abyss.

ixachi = great, much.

MAYA.

cochca =

coch-allpa = fallow
land, " tierra de des-
canso :" literally, land
that is resting.

i^ to sleep,
tlacochcalli = liter
ally, house of rest,
burial towers.

cuchil = place or
town .

ah-cuch-cab = the
chief or ruler of
a town or place.

collana = excellent,
principal, sovereign,
first and best of each
species.

987

552

APPENDIX.

QUECHUA.

collanan ayllu = royal

line, name used by

the Incas.
coya =. princess of

royal blood, virgin,

queen.

NAHUATL.

coyauac = something
broad, like a spring
of water or a win
dow.1

MAYA.

hapichi = title, mean- tlapixqui = title of piz = measure, quail

ing the collector of
produce, he who col
lects or gathers in.

some priests, liter
ally, he who gathers
in the harvest. Cf.
pixquitl — harvest,
etc.

tity.
pizil =

measure.

tiani =to sit down.

tiyana = seat of honor
such as were em
ployed as mark of
chieftainship.

huahua - tiana = ma
trix.

tiya-chicu = to be sell
ing something in the
public square.

tiyachi = to offer or
place something in
the public square to
be sold or exchanged.

micuy = food.

tiacauan = brave men,
strong warriors.

tiyacapan = first
born.

tiyacapanyotl = the
right of primogeni
ture and property.

tianquiztli = market,
also place or square
where market was
held.

tiamiquiztli = act of
buying or selling.

tiamictli = merchan
dise.2

tialtic = appurte
nance, right of pos
session.

in-ti or in-tin = the
sun.

tona-ti-uh = the sun,
literally, that which
shines.

kin = the sun.

1 The Incas claimed to have descended from three windows. See Rites and Laws of
the Incas, p. 77.

2 It is noteworthy that the Zuiii name for village in general is ti'-na-kwin-ne.
Tina = many sitting around and kwin-ne = place of.

Al'TENDIX.

553

QUECHUA.

mitiniaes = name
colonists.

NAHUATL.

for ce-mitime = sons of
one mother.

MAYA.

tavta — father.

mama = mother.

huarmi = woman.

Mama-cinaco = name
of a female ruler of
royal blood, mother
of Inca Hocca.

tatli = father.

ta-tzin = father, rev
erential form.

nantli = mother.

nantzin = reverential
form.

cihnatl = woman.

mama = verb, to rule.

uma = literally, the
head, title of priest.

Ingua or Inca— title
of Peruvian ruler.

ome, literally two, title
of head priest, for
instance : ome acatl,
ome tochtli.

quaitl = head.

in-quaitl = the head.

qua = abbreviation
for quaitl (see Sa-
hagun, book ix,
chap, xxix, par. 6).

hool, ppool or pul,
head, chieftain, be
ginning.

Tonapa = name of
culture hero who,
established Inca civ
ilization at Tiahua-
naco, erected large
cross, etc., made his
way to the ocean and
departed.

tonal pouhque = di
viner or soothsayer,
from verb tonalpoa
= to di vine by siy;ns
or count festivals
by ancient calendar
(Molina dictionary).
Cf. tonal-mitl = ray
of sun ; literally, sun's
arrow, from tona-
tinh=sun. Cf. tona-
catzon = the ancient
men, or the ruins.

989

554

APPENDIX.

QUECHUA.

ticsi = foundation,
ticsik = founder.
tecci-muyu-pacha =

the entire world or

universe,
tekse or tici = t ties

of Uiracocha.

NAHUATL.

icxitl = foot.

icxinecuiltic =a lame
person. Of. name
of Ursa Major.

qua = tecciztle = lit
erally : "heads dec
orated with shell."
= disciples of Quet-
zalcoatl ' ' who
called themselves
sons of the sun
and toltecas." Of,
Ticitl = medicine
man or woman, as
trologer or divines,
who employed the
pearl-oyster shell
tici-caxitl, for di-
vinatory purposes.

yoal-ticitl = title of
earth-mother, or
ancestress of hu
man race, whose
symbol was a sea-
snail = tecciztli.

MAYA.

Pacha-Yachachic =
title of Supreme Be
ing or Creator trans
lated as pacha =
world, time.

paccha = spicier.

yachachic = the teach
er (from yacha = to
learn with affix chi,
means to teach, like
rura = to make, ru-
rachi = to cause
others to make some
thing).

Pachacamac = title of
Creator.

990

pachoa = verb, to rule
or govern others.

yacana = to guide oth
ers, to govern a
town, to lead the
blind.

paccamachtia = to
teach cheerfully and
with patience.

amanteca = skilled
artisans.

am = spider,
aman = North,
ah-men = he who

builds,
ah-pakcah = he who

founds a town and

peoples it.

APPENDIX.

555

QUECHUA.

pa-chac-an or pa-cha-
ca = title of officer
of the Inca.

ccapac = title of su
preme ruler; ccapac
apu, male ruler; cca
pac ccoya = female
ruler.

NAHUATL.

yaca-tecuhtli, title of
the " god of the
travellers or mer
chants," literally
meaning " the
lord who guides,
governs or leads."

The names of his five
brothers were Chi-
conquiauitl, Xomo-
cuitl,Nacxitl, Cochi-
metl, Yacapitzauac.
The sister who com
pleted the group of
seven, was named
Chalmeca-ciuatl
(Sahagun, op. cit.
Book i, chap. xix).

This god and his six
brethren, to whom
the merchants offered
sacrifices when they
had safely returned
from their perilous
and long expeditions,
doubtlessly were
Polaris and the Ursa
Minor or Major.

MAYA.

bacab = title of the
rulers of the four
provinces or quar
ters.

chac = title of four
assistants of high
priest.

991

APPENDIX II.
A PRAYER-MEETING OF THE STAR-WORSHIPPERS.

Sook-es-Shookh, on the river Euphrates, in the Mesopotamia!!
vilhiyet, though an interesting spot, is not an imposing or attract
ive place. Like most of the townlets in this part of Asia Minor,
it is just a straggling, overgrown village, a few one-storied plas
tered houses, with flat roofs and narrow doorways, dotted here
and there, a number of wattled and mud-daubed huts huddled ir
regularly about, a may-id, of course, a khan or caravanserai, and one
or two open spaces with the inevitable refuse and rubbish heaps,
where a bazar or market is held on Fridays. It looks, however,
picturesque and peaceful enough, as we ride into it, in the deep
ening twilight of a late September evening. The stars are begin
ning already to twinkle overhead, but there is still sufficient light
left to note the strange, white-robed figures moving stealthily about
in the semi-gloom down by the riverside. Clad in long snowy gar
ments, reaching nearly to the ground, they pass to and fro near
the edge of the water, some wading into mid-stream, while the
sound of a strange salutation exchanged in a strange tongue, Sood
Havilakli) strikes oddly upon the ear long accustomed to the ordi
nary salutation, Selam AIekum, of the Arab-speaking Moslem! n.
Paderha Sutekh, " their fathers were burned," cries our Persian
Charvadar and guide in disgust, as he catches a glimpse of the
white-robed figures, thus delicately hinting that they are not fol
lowers of Islam ; and a Jew from Hamadan who accompanies our
party, on his way to the tomb of Ezekiel, deliberately spits upon
the ground and exclaims, in pure Hebrew, Obde kdklmljim umaza-
loth, " servants of the stars and planets." And the Hebrew is not
wrong. The forms gathering by the riverside in the twilight are
those of "Star-worshippers," the last remnants of the famous
magi of ancient Chaldea, and their followers, the Babylonian adorers
of the host of heaven. To the number of about four thousand in
all, they still survive in their Mesopotamian native land, principally
992

APPENDIX. 557

along the banks of the Euphrates river, where they form small
village communities. They invariably keep their settlements some
where near a stream, for their religious rites and ceremonies are
preceded by frequent bathings and ablutions, and a rill of flowing
water passing near or through their tabernacle or meeting-place is
indispensable. Hence this edifice is always raised quite close to
the river. They call themselves Mandaya, Mandai'tes, possessors
of the " word," the " living word," keep strictly to their own cus
toms and observances and language, and never intermarry with
Moslems, who call them Sabba, Sabeans. Their dialect is a rem
nant of the later Babylonian, and resembles closely the idiom of
the Palestinian Talmud, and their liturgy is a compound of frag
ments of the ancient Chaldean cosmogony with gnostic mysticism
influenced by later superstitions. They are a quiet and inoffensive
people noted, oddly enough, for the quality of their dairy produce
in the villages, and for their skill as metal workers and goldsmiths
in the towns where they reside. Their principal settlement is, or
was, at Mardin, in the Bagdad district; but there has always been
a small community of them at Sook-es-Shookh, on the banks of
their favorite stream, the Euphrates.

It happens to be the festival of the Star- worshippers celebrated
on the last day of the year and known as the Kansliio Zahlo, or
day of renunciation. This is the eve of the new year, the great
watch-night of the sect, when the annual prayer-meeting is held
and a solemn sacrifice made to Avather Ramo, the Judge of the
under world, and Ptahiel, his colleague ; and the white- robed fig
ures we observe down by the riverside are those of members of
the sect making the needful preparations for the prayer-meeting
and its attendant ceremonies. First, they have to erect their
Mislikna, their tabernacle or outdoor temple ; for the sect has,
strange to say, no permanent house of worship or meeting-place,
but raise one previous to their festival and only just in time for
the celebration. And this is now what they are busy doing within
a few yards of the water, as we ride into the place. The elders?
in charge of a slikando, or deacon, who directs them, are gathering
bundles of long reeds and wattles, which they weave quickly and
deftly into a sort of basket work. An oblong space is marked out
about sixteen feet long and twelve broad by stouter reeds, which
are driven firmly into the ground close together, and then tied with
strong cord. To these the squares of woven reeds and wattles are
p. M. PAPKKS i 63 993

558 APPENDIX.

securely attached, forming the outer containing walls of the tab
ernacle. The side walls run from north to south, and are not more
than seven feet high. Two windows, or rather openings for win
dows, are left east and west, and space for a door is made on the
southern side, so that the priest when entering the edifice has the
North Star, the great object of their adoration, immediately fac
ing him. An altar of beaten earth is raised in the centre of the
reed-encircled enclosure, and the interstices of the walls well
daubed with clay and soft earth, which speedily hardens. On one
side of the altar is placed a little furnace of dark earthenware, and
on the other a little haudmill, such as is generally used in the East
for grinding meal, together with a small quantity of charcoal.
Close to the southern wall, a circular basin is now excavated in
the ground, about eight feet across, and from the river a short
canal or channel is dug leading to it. Into this the water flows
from the stream, and soon fills the little reservoir to the brim.
Two tiny cabins or huts, made also of reeds and wickerwork, each
just large enough to hold a single person, are then roughly put
together, one by the side of the basin of water, the other at the fur
ther extremity of the southern wall, beyond the entrance. The sec
ond of these cabins or huts is sacred to the Ganzivro or high priest
of the Star-worshippers, and no layman is ever allowed to even so
much as touch the walls with his hands after it is built and placed
in position. The doorway and window openings of the edifice are
now hung with white curtains ; and long before midnight, the hour
at which the prayer meeting commences, the little Mishkna, or
tabernacle open to the sky, is finished and ready for the solemnity »
Towards midnight the Star-worshippers, men and women, come
slowly down to the Mislikna by the riverside. Each, as he or she
arrives, enters the tiny wattled hut by the southern wall, disrobes
and bathes in the little circular reservoir, the tarmido, or priest,
standing by and pronouncing over each the formula, u Eslimo
d'haf, Eslimo d'manda liai madhkar elakh" (" The name of the
living one, the name of the living word, be remembered upon thee") .
On emerging from the water, each one robes himself or herself in
the rasta, that is, the ceremonial white garments peculiar to the
Star- worshippers, consisting of a sadro, a long white shirt reaching
to the ground ; a nassifo, or stole, round the neck falling to the
knees ; a hiniamo, or girdle of woollen material ; a gabooa, square
head-piece reaching to the eyebrows ; a shalooal, or white over-
994

APPENDIX. 559

mantle ; and a kanzolo, or turban, wound round the gabooa head
piece, of which one end is left hanging down over the shoulder.
Peculiar sanctity attaches to the rasta, for the garments composing
it are those in which every Star-worshipper is buried, and in which
he believes he will appear for judgment before Avather in the
nether world Materotlw. Each one, as soon as he is thus attired,
crosses to the open space in front of the door of the tabernacle,
and seats himself upon the ground there, saluting those present
with the customary Sood Havilakli, "Blessing be with thee,"
and receiving in return the usual reply, Assootah d'hai havilakh,
" Blessing of the living one be with thee." The numbers increase
as the hour of the ceremonial comes nearer, and by midnight
there are some twenty rows of these white-robed figures, men
and women, ranked in orderly array facing the Mislikna, and
waiting in silent expectation the coming of the priests. A couple
of tarmidos, lamp in hand, guard the entry to the tabernacle, and
keep their eyes fixed upon the pointers of the Great Bear in the
sky above. As soon as these attain the position indicating mid
night, the priests give a signal by waving the lamps they hold, and
in a few moments the clergy of the sect march down in procession.
In front are four of the shkandos, young deacons, attired in the
rasta, with the addition of a silk cap, or tagha., under the turban,
to indicate their rank. Following these come four tannidos, ordained
priests who have undergone the baptism of the dead. Each wears
a gold ring on the little finger of the right hand, and carries a tau-
shaped cross of olive wood to show his standing. Behind the tar-
midos comes the spiritual head of the sect, the Ganzivro, a priest
elected by his colleagues, who has made complete renunciation
of the world and is regarded as one dead and in the realms of
the blessed. He is escorted by four other deacons. One holds
aloft the large wooden tan-cross, known as derashvod zico, that
symbolizes his religious office ; a second bears the sacred scriptures
of the Star- worshippers, the Sidra Rabbet, " the great Order," two-
thirds of which form the liturgy of the living and one-third the
ritual of the dead. The third of the deacons carries two live
pigeons in a cage, and the last a measure of barley and of sesame
seeds. The procession marches through the ranks of the seated
worshippers, who bend and kiss the garments of the Ganzivro as
he passes near them. The tarmidos^ guarding the entrance to the
tabernacle, draw back the hanging over the doorway and the priests

995

560 APPENDIX.

file in, the deacons and tarmidos to the right and left, leaving the
Ganzivro standing alone in the centre, in front of the earthen
altar facing the North Star, Polaris. The sacred book, Sidra Rabba,
is laid upon the altar folded back where the liturgy of the living
is divided from the ritual of the dead. The high priest takes one
of the live pigeons handed to him by a shkando, extends his hand
towards the Polar Star upon which he fixes his eyes, and lets the
bird fly, calling aloud, Bslimo d'hq'i rabba mshabbah zivo Jcadmaya
Elalia Edmen Nafshi Eprah, "In the name of the living one,
blessed be the primitive light, the ancient light, the Divinity self-
created." The words, clearly enunciated within, are distinctly
heard by the worshippers without, and with one accord the white-
robed figures rise from their places and prostrate themselves upon
the ground towards the North Star, on which they have silently
been gazing.

Noiselessly the worshippers resume their seated position on the
ground outside. Within the Mislikna, or tabernacle, the Ganzivro
steps on one side, and his place is immediately taken by the senior
priest, a tarmido, who opens the Sidra Rabba before him on the
altar and begins to read the Shomhotto, " confession" of the sect,
in a modulated chant, his voice rising and falling as he reads, and
ever and anon terminating in a loud and swelling Msliobbo liavi
eshmakhyo Manda d'hai, u Blessed be thy name, O source of life,"
which the congregants without take up and repeat with bowed
heads, their hands covering their eyes. While the reading is in
progress two other priests turn, and prepare the Peto elayat, or high
mystery, as they term their Communion. One kindles a charcoal
fire in the earthenware stove by the side of the altar, and the other
grinds small some of the barley brought by the deacon. He then
expresses some oil from the sesame seed, and, mixing the barley
meal and oil, prepares a mass of dough which he kneads and sepa
rates into small cakes, the size of a two-shilling piece. These are
quickly thrust into or on the oven and baked, the chanting of the
liturgy of the Shomlwtto still proceeding with its steady sing-song
and response, Msliobbo liavi eshmakhyo, from outside. The fourth
of the tarmidos now takes the pigeon left in the cage from the
slikando, or deacon, standing near him, and cuts its throat quickly
with a very sharp knife, taking care that no blood is lost. The
little cakes are then brought to him by his colleague, and, still
holding the dying pigeon, he strains its neck over them in such a
996

APPENDIX. 561

way that four drops fall on each one so as to form the sacred tau,
or cross. Amid the continued reading of the liturgy, the cakes are
carried round to the worshippers outside by the two principal priests
who prepared them, who themselves pop them direct into the
mouths of the members, with the words Rsliimot beres/im d'lia'i,
" Marked be thou with the mark of the living one." The four
deacons inside the Mislikna walk round to the rear of the altar and
dig a little hole, in which the body of the dead pigeon is then
buried. The chanting of the confession is now closed by the offi
ciating tarmido, and the high priest, the Ganzivro, resuming his
former place in front of the Sacred Book, begins the recitation of
the Massakhto, or "renunciation" of the dead, ever directing his
prayers towards the North Star, on which the gaze of the worship
pers outside continues fixed throughout the whole of the ceremonial
observances and prayers. This star is the Olma d'nhoora, literally
''the world of light," the primitive sun of the Star-worshippers
theogouy, the paradise of the elect, and the abode of the pious
hereafter. For three hours the reading of the "renunciation" by
the high priest continues, interrupted only, ever and anon, by the
Msliobbo havi eshmakhyo, " Blessed be thy name," of the partici
pants seated outside, until, towards dawn, a loud and ringing Ano
asborlakh ano asborli ya Avather, " I mind me of thee, mind thou
of me O Avather," comes from the mouth of the priest, and sig
nalizes the termination of the prayers.

Before the North Star fades in the pale ashen grey of approach
ing dawn, a sheep, penned over night near the river, is led into the
tabernacle by one of the four shkandos for sacrifice to Avather
and his companion deity, Ptahiel. It is a wether, for the Star-
worshippers never kill ewes, or eat their flesh when killed. The
animal is laid upon some reeds, its head west and its tail east, the
Ganzivro behind it facing the Star. He first pours water over his
hands, then over his feet, the water being brought to him by a
deacon. One of the tarmidos takes up a position at his elbow and
places his hand on the Ganzivro's shoulder, saying, Ana shaddctkh,
41 1 bear witness." The high priest bends towards the North Star,
draws a sharp knife from his left side, and reciting the formula,
u In the name of Alaha, Ptahiel created thee, Hibel Sivo permitted
thee, and it is I who slay thee," cuts the sheep's throat from ear to
ear, and allows the blood to escape on to the matted reeds upon
which the animal is stretched out. The four deacons go outside,

997

562 APPENDIX.

wash their hands and feet, then flay the sheep, and cut it into as
many portions as there are communicants outside. The pieces are
now distributed among the worshippers, the priests leave the tab
ernacle in the same order as they came, and with a parting bene
diction from the Cfanzivro, Assootad d'lia'i Jiavilakh, " The benison
of the living one attend thee," the prayer-meeting terminates, and
the Star-worshippers quietly return to their homes before the crim
son sun has time to peep above the horizon.1

1 The accuracy and value of the above article are vouched for, in an interesting way
by the Rev. Samuel M. Zwemer, F. R. G. S. (a missionary who spent ten years in Ara
bia), who refers to it as follows, and quotes it in his recent publication : " Arabia, the
cradle of Islam. New York, 1900," p. 289. "An anonymous article in the London
Standard, Oct. 19, 1894, entitled, 'A prayer-meeting of the Star-worshippers,' curi
ously gave me the key to open the lock of their silence. Whoever wrote it must have
been perfectly acquainted with their religious ceremonies, for when I translated it to
a company of Sabeans at Amara, they were dumfoundecl. Knowing that I knew
something, made it easy for them to tell me more."

APPENDIX III.

COMPARATIVE LISTS OF WORDS.

I.
OLD WORLD.

YAU or YU = the source or origin, the Chinese character for which
figures a square or circle divided into four by crossed horizontal and per
pendicular lines, the latter projecting above the square or circle.1

YAOU and YU — mythical emperors who instituted the celestial king
dom, see p. 298.

YAOU SING = 4i Revolving Star" in Ursa Major. China,

UI or HWEI = verb to turn around. Chinese.

YUL, YEUL, YEOL = wheel (Icelandic hjol, O. Swedish hiugl, Swedish
hjul).

HVEL = disk, orb. Iceland.

WUOTAN = ODIN = supreme divinity. Scandinavia.

JOVLA — sacred hearth fire of Northern Finns, under guardianship of
mother of family.

JOVIS = Roman supreme divinity, associated with wheel.

YAHWE = Hebrew name for God, translated as " heaven," was pro
nounced Yahu. According to the Masoretes must be read Yeho (Yahu).
The early Gnostics wrote lao, that is Yaho (Sayce). The four conso
nants yhvh, pronounced Yahveh, constituted the sacred Tetragrammaton,
or four lettered name of the Most High.

Archbishop Tenison says (Idolat. p. 40-i) : " This name was no mystery
among the Greeks, as is evident from the mention of the god leuo in
Sanchoniathon ; Jaho in St. Hiersm, and the Sibylline Oracles; Jaoth or
Jaho in Irenaeus; of the Hebrew God called Jaoia by the Gnostics; of
Jaou in Clemens Alexandrinus, of Jao the first principle of the Gnostic
Heaven in Epiphanius; the God of Moses in Diodorus Siculus; the god
Bacchus in the oracle of Apollo Clarius; lastly, as was said, of the
Samaritan Jabe, in Theodoret."

YEUI) EKHAD = name of supreme god of Phoenicians the Red people
(Sayce).

i I point out the remarkable fact that the Chinese name for jade = yu, is homony-
mous with the word for source or origin, hence, perhaps, its sacreduess and employ
ment as a secret symbol of the hidden source of all things. See p. 277 for Chinese
choice of symbols influenced by sound of name.

999

564 APPENDIX.

NEW WORLD.

YOUALLI-EHEOATL, literally, night or circling-air or wind = su
preme god of the Chichimecs (see p. 33), a Mexican ruling tribe whose
name signifies the red lineage or people.

YAHUAL-TECUHTLI or YOUAL-TECUHTLI =the "Lord of the
circle or of the Night, i. e. North-star god, supreme divinity. Mexico,
see p. 279.

YALAIIUA = Tzendal deity, p. 181.
YANAULUIIA = Zuni deity, p. 223.'
t IO, IOVANA, IELLA, IOCAHUNA = names for god.
J HUIOU — sun.

I HUIOO or HUIHO = mountain. Haiti.
f YOLI, YULI = verb, to live, resuscitate, vivify.
i OLLIN = " motion." Nahuatl.

YAUALLI =to walk in a circle many times. Nahuatl.
YOUALLI = night. Nahuatl.
HUE = egg. Maya.

OLD WORLD.

SHAME = heaven. Babylonian-Assyrian.

SAMA —heaven. Graeco- Persian.

SAM A or SHAMA = north. Arabic (Al Kaukabal Shamaliyy == star of
the North; Al Kulbal Shamaliyy = the northern axle or spindle).

AM AN = verb to sustain. Akkadian.

AMAXA = name for Ursa Major = a chariot. Greek.

SAMAS or SHAMASH = Babylonian-Assyrian god, "the universal
judge," whose image was wheel with four rays (see pp. 331 and 350), cf.
Ram man.

BAAL-SHAMAYUN = supreme god. Phoenicia.

AM A SIS = Egyptian god.

KAMOSH = god of Moabites, p. 350.

HAM or KHAM == name for northern Egypt.

AMANTINI = an Illyrian tribe. Greece.

BR-AIIMA == supreme god. India (cf. Yama).1

BR-AIIMANAS = priestly caste. India.

1 The Hindu Yama and Yami were twin brother and sister, and have been respect
ively identified by Prof. Max Miiller as night rtnd day. Yama, the inseparable dual
ity, is entitled law and justice, etc. and was represented with four arms, riding a
buffalo, with a crown on his head, accompanied by " two four-eyed watch dogs, which
are probably the eight or twice-four regions of the compass" . . . (Chambers' En
cyclopaedia). Of the originally cosmical character of Yama there can be no doubt. It
is curious to find, at the epic and Puranic period, the account of " Yama " marrying
the thirteen daughters of Daksha (north-people, white), becoming the regent of the
south and residing in Yamapura, a town in the lower regions; details which appear
to indicate the actual establishment of a kingdom on the familiar plan by an earthly
representative of the coemical deity.

1000

APPENDIX. 565

ARYAMAN = star-god associated with Mitra-Yaruna, Ursa Major and
number seven. In Zenclavesta is associated with Ashvino-ritual. India.

A MA or AME = heaven. Japan.

KAMI = deity, top, above.

0-KAMI = the honorable government.

YAMA = mountain. Japan.

YAMATO = main island of Japan.

AMA-NO-MA-HITOTSU= "Eye of Heaven," name for Pole-star. Japan.

AME-NO-MI-NAKA-NUSHI-NO-KAMI == Deity-Master-of-the-August-
Centre-of Heaven, first Japanese " hidden " god.1

AME - NO-TOKO - TACHI - NO-KAMI = Deity - standing- eternally- in -
heaven, hidden god; cf. Kuni-no-toko-tachi-no-kami — Deity-standing-
eternally-on-earth. Japan.

AMEN-RA = hidden god. Egypt.

AHA-MENA or MENES = historical founder of kingdom = " the Con
stant One." Egypt; cf. menu = monuments ; smeri = to establish.
Egyptian.

MINYCE, MINYANS or MINCEANS = race who traced descent from
Minos = the measurer (Men = measurer) ; great agricultural and build
ing race in India, Arabia and Egypt. Measured time by circumpolar con
stellations; became confederates of Sabaeans ; conquered Phrygia, built
Mycenae (Hewitt).

AMUN = national god of Ammonites. Amim means the builder or ar
chitect and is, like the name of Egyptian god, formed of aman, to sustain.
He was the god of the meridian and of the central house-pole, sustaining
roof who, in Egypt, became Amen-ra (Sayce and Gesenius, quoted by
Hewitt, op. cit.\ The supreme god of the Ammonites was Nagash, the
constellation of Ursa Major (Hewitt).

NEW WORLD.

AMAN or XAMAN (pron. Hainan) = north. Maya, Yucatan.

AH-MEN = master builder, handicraftsman; cf. Menah or Menyah —
artificer, artisan, builder, handicraftsman ; cf. verb men = to build,
found, establish, erect, also menta'al = to govern. Maya, p. 234.

AMAN-TECA = name used in ancient Mexico to designate master-
handicraftsmen, synonym of Tolteca.

AMAUTAS = name given in Peru to the " wise men " who introduced
civilization.

III.

OLD WORLD.

AN = heaven, god. Babylonian Assyrian (p. 331).

1 This was the first god of the divine triad of whom it is recorded that "they hid
their persons;" see Translation of the Ko-ji-ki or Records of Ancient Matters, Basil
Hall Chamberlain, vol. x, supplement, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,
Sections land II from which this and the following names of gods are taken.

1001

566 APPENDIX.

ANA = heaven. Sumerian, Akkadian,1 rf. Akanna = Ursa Major, Ak
kadian, see p. 235.

AN and ANNU = names of celestial and terrestrial sacred central cities.
Egypt, cf. an = pillar or that which turns around. According to Flinders
Petrie, the an was an octagonal fluted column with a square tenon or top.

MANU — sacred mountain situated in N. W. Egypt.

KW-AN-IRAS = sacred central cosmical division situated under pole-
star, around which the six kingdoms of Iran were situated. Persia.

CANAAN — holy land, whose capital was Jerusalem.

AN- SHAN = name of ancient Persian empire.

AN-SH All — supreme god. Assyria, cf. Nannar, pp. 336 and 337.

AN-SAR = transcription of Osiris. Egypt, cf. Anubis also Anu and
Anath, Janus and Jana.

Z-AN = old Doric form of Zeus, hence Janus.

SHANG = heaven, the Above. China.

KAN = mountain, also Yo. China.

ALKAII) = star in Ursa Major, also used for moon; origin of Spanish
title Ale Hide.

ALKAB1R = the Great. Early Arabic.

KA = surnamed the Great. Ku shite father of life, the hidden god who
guards and distributes, at the appointed seasons, the life-giving rains
(Hewitt).2

KA = title of Egyptian king, usually rendered by " bull."

KHAN = a prince. Tartary.

KHAKAN = an emperor or sovereign. Persia.

HAN = name for empire. Japan, cf. ken, imperial domain.

HANA = flower or blossom. Japanese, cf. ankh = flower, Egyptian
and anthos = flower, Greek.

ANGLI or ANGUIWAKII = widely diffused, great northern race, men
tioned by Tacitus and Ptolemy.

1 The Akkadian Sumerian Cosmos is thus described: " Above the earth extended
the sky, ana, spangled with its fixed stars (mul) revolving around the mountain of
the east (Kharsak Kurra) the column which joins the heaven and the earth and
serves as an axis to the celestial vault. The culminating point in the heaven, the
zenith (Paku), was not this axis or pole; on the contrary, it was situated immediately
above the country of Akkadia [Kalama] which was regarded as the centre of the in
habited lands, while the mountain which acted as a pivot to the starry heavens was to
the northeast of this country. Beyond the mountain, also to the northeast, extended
the land of Aralli, which was very rich in gold and was inhabited by the gods and
blessed spirits (Lenormant, quoted by Warren op. cit. p. 1(56).

2 This is the Ka of Egyptian theology he is the Sek-Xag, the god of the

Raj, or royal race of Gonds, born (ja) of Ra, that is, the sons of Ra-Hu, the begetting
(Hu) creating fire-god (Ra). His festival is held every seven years and is attended

only by males who are bound to secrecy as to its rites This god, the great Nag,

is the soul of life in the rain cloud, the heavenly snake . . . .the other being the Ahi
or Echis, the snake of earth." .... To the present day the Jains, who are the great
trading race of India, call themselves Ka-ya = the sons of Ka. This name they must
have brought with them to the holy island (Dilmun), from thence it must have trav
elled to Egypt with the race who established the Kushite rule there" (Hewitt).

1002

APPENDIX. 567

NEW WORLD.

CA-AN = heaven. Maya, Yucatan, see pp. 278 and 288.

CANAL = Above. " "

CAN —title of culture-hero: KUKUL-CAX = the divine can, homo
nym of can = serpent. Maya, Yucatan.

ZIUVA-CAAN = Colony founded in Yucatan, by Holon-chan-te — Peuh.

ANAHUAC : name of Mexican empire, usually loosely translated as a =
water, nahuac = by the water.

To this list should be added the following affixes or prefixes, denoting,
in each case, " place, land or region of."

Egyptian: ta, for instance meh-ta or mah-ta = north : amen-ta = hid
den region, N. W.

Chinese : kwan = earth, land.

Persian : Kwan-iras or Hvan-iras = the name for Iran = " land of
Iran"?

Japanese: ban, empire, ken = domain.

Maya: tan, for instance Aman-tan or Xaman-tan = North.

Nahuatl : an, tlan or can, " land of, also mountain."

Zufii : wan = place of, for instance Halona-wan.

IV.

OLD WORLD.

AK=Middle. Egypt, p. 385.

AKANNA = literally " the Lord of Heaven." title Ursa Major. Akka
dian, p. 394.

N-AKKASCH = title of Polaris "the serpent." Phoenicia (p. 325).

NAGASCH, NAHUSHA, or the Great Nag = the great invisible god,
hidden in his ark of clouds, who reveals himself to men as the ruler of time
and the orderer of the regular sequence of the phenomena of nature, and
who churns, in the mortar of the heavens, the life-giving rains in which his
divine spirit is infused (Hewitt).

NAGA. NAGUll = the rain snake, at whose summer festival called
Akkhadi or Akhtuj, the Goncls worship the cart axle or akkha in a cere
mony which is a reminiscence of the days when the axle was the upright
revolving pole pressing out the heavenly rain. The Naga snake was
the offspring of the house pole; the soul of life in the rain cloud; the
heavenly snake, the great time-measurer and year god of the Hindus
(Hewitt).

P-AKU = zenith. Akkadian, cf. Papakhu, central sacred cosmical
chamber.

AKKAD =the North, name of country (B. C. 3800). Babylonia-Assyria,
p. 347.

K-AKKABU = the star, Polaris. Babylonia-Assyria, p. 320.

AKRIS or AKROS = summit, point, supreme, most high; c/."ok = eye.
Greek.

1003

5G8 APPENDIX.

AKRIOS = god of summit, title of supreme god. Greece.

AKA-TOS, AKA = a ship. Greek.

ACUAIIS = the Achaian land.

ACHAIANS = in Homer, the name for Greeks generally.

AKKA = Hindu village dancing and marriage ground, where sacred
tree is planted and sacrifices made to it in great Naga festival (Hewitt).

AKSA = name of mosque at Jerusalem.

AKSHAFARU — point, summit. Persian.

AKAL, AKARAN = god, eternal, timeless. Zoroastian, name of god.

H-AK-HAMANISIJA = ancient royal title. Persia.

HAK = king or regent, royal title. Akkadian, Egyptian.

AKACA = Sanscrit name for fifth element aether: (Schroeder).

AGATHON = name given by Pythagoreans to all-embracing soul of
the universe.

AK or AG = verb aj, to drive, urge, impel. Sanscrit.

AGNI = god of central fire. India.

AGASTYA = star father of Dravidians. India.

CHAKRA = wheel. Sanscrit.

CHAKRAYARTIN = title, supreme ruler. Sanscrit.

AKSHA = axis or axle. Sanscrit.

AKSHIVAN = " the driver of the axle," supreme ruler. Sanscrit.

1) AKSHA =the North people, also white, blessed, and the left. Sanscrit.

TAKKAS = one of the most powerful and wealthy tribes of the Pun
jab, whose progeners founded the great city of Taxila, the Hindu Takka-
sila or rock of the Takkas, taken by Alexander the Great. Their name
Takkas or Takshas means " the makers or artificers," which is connected

with the Akkadian tuk = stone They call themselves the sons of the

two Nagas or horned snake, Takht-nag and Basak-nag or " the sons of
the race of artificers "... as the sons of the all-mother Maga [the
maker or kneader], they called themselves the sons of the mother-moun
tain (Hewitt).

AKHAL, AKHAL-ZIKH, AKHAL-KALAKI = names of towns. Asia
Minor (O'Neil, p. 681).

ACASA or ACASE = axis or axle. Old Norse.

AKKA and UKKO — names given by Finns to mother-earth and father-
heavens (O'Neil, p. 38).

NAKA = Middle. Japan (O'Neil, p. 536). l

HAK-KAKU = eight holy corners or points ; also that which is reveal> .
disclosed, known, come to light. Japanese dictionary.

AKA = above, mountain, cf. SAKA = ascent. Japan.

AGATA = ancient name for domain or department (Chamberlain).
Japan.

IIAKKI = the eight diagrams, cf. Ya-he-koto-shiro-nu-shi-no-kami =
Deity -eight -fold -thing -sign -master. Chamberlain op. eft. pp. 83 and
101.

i The titles "Middle king," "Great Middle princess," are cited by Chamberlain,
op. cit. pp. 205 and 207.

1004

APPENDIX. 569

WAKE, WAKI, WAKU = lord, title. Japan.

KAGU = Mount Kngu in Heaven. Japan.

IIAKU = white, shining. Japan.

HOKU, NE-NO-HO, KITA, K1TA-NO-HO = North. Japan. Cf. Khita
= race mentioned in Egyptian and Biblical history, and Kitai = name for
China.

HOKU- SEI, HOKU-SHIN, HOKKIYOKU, North Star. Japan.

NEW WORLD.
Nahuatl.

ACACHTO — the first, at first.

YAQUK = that which has a point; a point, by extension a nose.

YACANA = to govern a town or to guide.

YACA-TECUHTLI (literally, the governing or guiding lord) = title of
Polaris, cf. Pacha-Yachachic = Peruvian Creator, p. 159.

TON-ACA-TECUHTLI = title of Creator.

MAL-ACATL = wheel, spindle, verb malacachoa, to walk around in a
circle.

ACATL = cane, staff*.

CE-ACATL, OME-ACATL = titles of deities meaning One Acatl, Two
Acatl.

13 ACATL = inscription on Stone of Great Plan and on image of Di
vine Twain (see p. 261).

ACALLI = boat, from atl = water, calli = house.

Maya.

AKAB = night.

B-AK-CAB = in a circle, around, cf. hab = year.
BACAB = title of four " rulers of the year," tetrarch.
AK-BAL = a vessel or pot.
C-ACAB =town, village.

B-AK-LIC = around in a circle, in the surroundings.
B-AK-TE = together.
B AK-ACH = all, the whole.

B-AK = rock, fortification, enclosure, also bone, phallus, foundation,
heron.

N-AK = throne, belly.
N-AK-LIC = at the root, on op of all.
L-AK-AN = standard, banner.
L-AK-IN =east.
K-AK = fire.
P-AC-AT= sight.
Z-A.K = white cf. Iztac = white. Nahuatl.

OLD WORLD.

MAD-HYIAS =. Middle. Sanscrit.

1005

570 APPENDIX.

MAGIIAVAN = Vedic name of Indra.

MATH = the fire-drill, from math or mauth = to twirl or churn. San
scrit.1

MATI-IURA — name of central sacred locality. India (see Hewitt, p.
214).

MAGANA = Akkadian name for the Sinaitic Peninsula.

MAGHADAS = Finnic race ruling Northern India before the Kushites.

MERU = the Middle. Sanscrit, p. 317.

MATITA or MEHTA = north. Egyptian, c/. mit = death.

MED-DOS, MEDOS or MESOS = 'Middle. Greek.

MED-IUS = Middle. Latin.

MED-ON = Middle. Old Irish, c/. Medi = Tullium, centre of state.

MID-JIS, Middle. Goth.

MIODHACH — a Central Power (Joyce). Celtic.

MITRA =tlie god said, in Rig-Veda, " to fix times of festivals." Was as
sociated with Varuna = night and rain god (Greek, Ouranos), with the
constellation of Ursa Major and the number seven. The North was sacred
to Mitra- Varuna who " maintain the invariable succession of the order of
natural phenomena" (see Hewitt, pp. 144, 41G and 420).

MILKOM = god of Ammonites whose supreme god was Ursa Major.

MEDIA or MADGA = ancient kingdom whose inhabitants were allied
to Persians and shook oft' yoke of Assyrian rule in 708 B. C.

MEDUM = site of most ancient pyramid known. Egypt.

MECCA = sacred capital. Arabia.

MY-CENAE = very ancient city in N. E. of Argolis, built upon craggy
height, principal city of Greece and capital of kingdom in Agamemnon's
time.

METIIONE = most ancient Greek colony on Thermaic gulf.

MI-YAU-KEN: "name under which the Pole-star is worshipped in
Japan in the form of a Buddha with a wheel, the emblem of the revolv
ing world, resting on his folded hands."2 c/. Chinese.

MUKDEN = capital of Manchuria, p. 2H8, c/. Mughs or Maghadas,
Finnic race ruling Northern India before Kushites, and

MAN.JHUS = " royal land " set apart in Ooraon villages.

MIOKEN = name of town and mountain. Japan.

1 Madhu = the inspiring intoxicating honey mead used in the sacred ritual, sub
stituted by a Northern people for the barley liquor offered in the manthin or creating,
churning cup. The names given to the drinkers of inadhu = "madhuya," madhu-pa
and Madhvi; also madhu-varna, the men of Madhu's caste, are curiously homony-
mous with the word for Middle Madhyias and appear to designate them as the " Mid
dle caste," naturally associated with the North.

2 Quoted by O'Neil from Satow and Flawes' Hdbk. of Japan, 2nd ed. p. 39.
It is interesting to compare the following Japanese words with Miyauken:
MIYO = wonderful, admirable, secret, mysterious, holy.

MI YA = Shinto temple where the kami are worshipped. Japan.

MIYUKI = travelling, going, only applied to circuit of provinces performed by
Mikado.

KEN = imperial domain, or that territory which is under the direct government
of the Mikado, cf. Chinese k'an = land.

10U6

APPENDIX. 571

MIWA = sacred mountain shrine regarded with extraordinary reverence.
Japan (Chamberlain).

MIAIvO = ancient sacred capital of Japan, residence of

MIKO, or MIKADO = heavenly sovereign who, like the Chinese Wong
or Wang == king, ruled the three powers, heaven, earth and man. The
Chinese character, consisting of three horizontal lines crossed by a per
pendicular line expresses also the Japanese Miko which includes males and
females and is used combined with Naka= middle i. e., Middle sovereign
(Chamberlain).

MIHE = threefold. Japanese.

MID-KKXA = cosmical central power and mountain. Old Irish.

MID-GAUD = cosmical centre. Scandinavia.

MIODH-CIIUARTA (pron. micorta)= Meath, centre of Irish kingdom.

MERCIA = middle kingdom of Britain.

HAR-MOED = central mountain. Isaiah xiv.

MISIIKXA = name of tabernacle of pole-star worshipping Mandaites
(see Appendix II).

NEW WORLD.

MEXICO = name of capital and by extension of state.
MEK-TAN = Maya name for empire, literally : "land of Mek."
MITN AL or METNAL = underworld. Maya.

MICTLAN = name of region surrounding pyramids of Teotihuacau.
M1TLA = name of ruins in Oaxaca, Mexico.
MICTLAMPA = north. Nahuatl. cf. miquiztli = death.
MICTLAN-TECUHTLI = lord of the North, or underworld. Mexican
pole-star god.

VI.
OLD WORLD.

I-KU or I KUU = the leader or prince, Polaris. Assyria.

DIL-GAN-1-KU = the messenger of light, Polaris. Akkadian.

KU = holy, divine (tul-kn, the holy altar). Akkadian.

KU = word of Finnic origin brought to India by Northern settlers —
used by them to denote Father-god — Ukku. Uk = the great Ku = placer
or begetter (Hewitt, p. 148).

KU-8HIKAS = ruling race of India, of Northern origin, known as
Ashura-kushikas (Hewitt).

CHU = the brilliance or light, Egyptian.

CHU-ATEX — the central capital founded by Amenhotep.

AL-KUTB = the axle, Polaris. Arabia.

TUL-KU = the holy altar. Akkadian.

GU = the urn. Akkadian.

KUL-KUN = central cosmical mountain. China, cf. Sar-tuli-elli, king
of the holy mound.

KURUMA = wheel, Japanese, also mawaru, from marawi = to turn,
revolve.

1007

572 APPENDIX.

NEW WORLD.

Maya.
KU = god.

KUKUL = holy, divine (p. 69).
KUKULCAN = name of culture-hero.
KU-LEL = noble.
KU-XA = temple.
KUKUM = feather.
KUL = chalice.

CHUT = bowl, cf. Nahuatl cumitl = bowl or jar.
CHU-MUC = that which is in the middle or centre.
CHU-MUCCIL = Middle, centre.
CHU-MUC-AKAB = midnight.
CHU-NIL = adj. the principal.

VII.

OLD WORLD.

CITRA — bright, shining. Sanscrit.

TARA=star. Sanscrit, cf. Ra = god. Egypt.

SITARA =star. Hindu.

TJARA =star. Old Norse, cf. tar = tree.

TAR A = name of central city. Old Irish.

UTTARA = North. Sanscrit.

ISH-TAR = goddess, a hymn to whom, in Akkadian and Assyrian, begins
thus : " Thou who as the axis of the heavens dawnest, In the dwellings of
the earth her name revolves" (Prof. Sayce, quoted by O'Neil, p. 715).

Compare with Egyptian ra=god and note that the Sanscrit uttara
could have been expressed in Egyptian hieratic script by the form of
eye = uta and the sign for ra i. e. an eye within a circle (see p. 390 and
fig. 62). Also compare the Sanscrit and Hindu citra and sitara with
Egyptian seb-seta "the hidden star," pictured by the turtle, sit or cit,
etc. (see p. 398).

NEW WORLD.

CITLALLIN = star. Nahuatl.

IX-TOLOLOTLI = eye, employed in picture writing for star. Nahuatl,
see in centre of Naliui-Ollin, fig. 2, Nos. 1 and 3.

IXUA=the birth of a plant, the germination of seed, cf. cihuatl =
woman. Nahuatl.

1XTLI =the face. Nahuatl.

ICH = the eye. Maya.

IK = life, breath, air, wind cf. ecatl = breath, etc., Nahuatl, and ek =
star. Maya.

KIKCOLOM = blood. Maya.

X I CO = navel. Nahuatl.
1008

Al'PKNIUX.

TEH-TEH = designation of tlie first star of the Great Bear, given in
star-list in Papyrus of Ani, and the same as Te-te, the Akkadian star-god
of the two foundations (Hewitt, p. 2C7).

TET = highly abraded form of timmeii = foundation.

T KM = foundation, Egyptian (O'Xeil); foundation stone (Brown).
Akkadian.

TET = eternity, symbolized by stone pillar. Euypt.

A -TEX = circle or disk. Egypt.

I'A-TET = Egyptian name for emerald.

THEOS = Greek name for god i. e. Cosmos.

THEO = descriptive of running wheel, of anything circular which
seems to run around into itself.

THEORS = sacred envoys, who came for sacred festivals to Olympia
or Delphi from different points.

THEMIS = law, right, agreed upon by common consent or prescription.
Greece.

THEMIS = personified law. order and justice, <\f. Artemis, the goddess
to whom the seven stars of the Great Bear were sacred (Hewitt).

TE1MENOS = piece of land sacred to a god, sacred precincts, precincts
of temple.

A-THENA = name of Grecian capital, state and goddess, signified
•• Seven."

TEXOS and TEOS = names of Greek states, p. 45i>.

DKOTHAX = village earth-god worshipped by Brahmin priests (Hew
itt).

TEEN" or TIEN = heaven, god. the character for god being an upright
pole or support, a "ti." Chinese, see p. 301, cf. Chinese character, tien.
field, representing a square divided by cross lines into four parts.

NEW WORLD.

TEM, TETEM == stone altar, foundation. Maya. p. 22!*.

TETL = stone. Nahuatl.

TEO-CALLI = •• house of god" = temple. Xahuatl.

TEOTL = name for god. Xahuatl.

TEOTIHUACAX = site of extensive ruins. Mexico.

TEXOCH-TT-TLAX = name of capital of Mexico.

TEM1STITAX —another ancient name for Mexican capital.

IX.
OLD WORLD.

ASH = number >ix. Akkadian.

ASHURA = trading non-Aryan races, the Hittites, worshippers of six

I'. M. I'Al'KHS 1 C,4

574 APPENDIX.

nods, six seasons, of Pleiades and of Ashura Mazda, the Zend god. Es
tablished system of grouping six provinces around central royal province
where king resided.

ASH VINS = stars which drove round the pole the constellations of
Ursa Major and Draco, another name for Ashura? Sons of horse (ashva),
brought barley to India, drank mead (ma<lhn) ; instituted the Ashva
Mod 1m, or horse-s -icriuYe of the Hindus, also used by North Germans
Uuro-Kinns, Scythians and Romans.

ASH, NAK.-KASCH = Draco, Euphratean name for Polaris.

MASSEBA = stone pillar. Hebrew s\ mbol, see p. 350.

AS 1 1 ERA 11 = pole or tree, worshipped by Phoenicians and Hebrews
equivalent ol Indian rain-pole.

AL-FASS = axis, Arabian name for pole-star.

PiL VR-AS1I-AH, PARR- vSIS = Hjorew and Phoenician "guiding star, "
Polaris.

ASSUR = kingdom and god of Assyria.

AS \R = transcription of Osiris. Egypt (O'Neil, p. 59).

ASIA — name given by Greeks to Asia.

ASK AMOS = ancient name of Phngia.

ASTARTE = goddess of heaven, see p. 350.

ASS or /E>IK = Scandinavian gods.

ASSGAIU) = central, divine dwelling. Scandinavia.

UM-ASHl =reiid slioot that sprouted when the earih, young and like
unto floating oil, drifted about medusa-like. Japan. (Records of Ancient
Matters, section I.)

UMASHI-ASlil-KABI-HIKO-JI-NO-KAMI = "Pleasant — reed —shoot
— elder — deity," born from primaeval reed-shoot.

ASI1I-H UU-NO-N \K\-TSU-KUNI = Land in the Middle of the
Reed plains, common periphrastic designation of Japan.

NEW WORLD.

AZTLAX = the original home of Aztec race, according to tradition.

AZTEC = name of dominant race. Mexico.

ASH IVVi = other name for Zufii tribe (dishing, see p. 203).

OLD WORLD.

0, ON or NO = name of celestial and terrestrial capitals. Hebrew and
Egyptian.

OLYMPOS = " the breaker or organizer of time (Hewitt, p. 5H).

KOLONH = a hill, mound, Greek; Lat. tumulus.

COLONOS = a demos of Attica lying on and around hill sacred to
Poseidon.

COLON I A = a colony, the Lat. colonia.

KOLOSSOS = statue in general, i. e. column?

APPENDIX. .

OM-EL-KORA = mother of cities. Arabian, see p. 328.

OMPIIALE = in Greek mythology, the fire socket, wife of Herakles, the
fire drill (Hewitt).

HO = designation for directions in space. China, see pp. 285-288.

HO = acme, taken to mean the best, highest, most showy part of
anything. Japanese (Chamberlain).1

HO = the land's acme, or a plain surrounded by mountains. Japan
(Motowori).

HOM = date-palm-sacred tree. Babylonia-Assyria (Sir Geo. Birdwood).

NEW WORLD.

HO, or TI-HOO = ancient capital of Yucatan, see p. 277.
HOM = mound. Maya.
HOMTAMIL = belly, i. e. omphalos.

1 Transaction^ of Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. X, p. 245, note 2.

INDEX.

Abadiano, Dionysio, 246. 251.
Above (see " Heaven or Above "] .
Academia Manuscript, 11.
Acamapichtli, Mexican ruler, liaving title

of " Woman- serpent," 63, 67, 71.

Acatl, one of the four Mexican vear-svm-
bols, 7(5, 170, 179. 257, 280.

A col in a. 55.

Acosta, 76, 150.

Agave or maguev. juice of. "drink of
life," 188.

Ahau, Maya glyph, chief, lord, Hi!): fig
ured on gold plaque from Cu/.co. 109.
•220 .

A hau-ka-tun, 24-year period. 219; literalh
lord, -20 stone", compared with C'opaii
stelae, 219, 221.

Ah-cuch-cab, Maya name of ruler or
chief of a (own or place, ls4; title of
chief, 220; terrestrial lord. 224.

Ah cuch-haab. Maya name for foui- year-
signs, 220.

Air, in Mexico. Quetzalcoatl, lord of.
126: name of one of the four eras since
the c.reation of the world, 253.

Air and water design, on sacred edifices
in ancient America, 126; union of, 120;
emblem of Above, 126: on drinking
vessels, 127; on dome of ancient Greek
monument. 127; associated with the
male region, -249.

Akbal, Maya irlyph. 108

Akkad = the North. :{:!4.

Akkadians, Semitic race of Assyria-
Babylonia, 334.

Alexander of Macedonia. 527.

Allen, Kichard Hincklcy. 44,s 451, 525.

Alligator, altar at Copaii, 227. '2-28, 2!-:<>: to
tern of Copan tribe, 22S; symbol in co
dices, 504, 518; in India, 505. 519: totem
of Mayas and Mexicans. .V20.

Altars at Copan, 220, 2'27. 228. 229.

A nuiterasu, Japanese sun goddess. 311.

Amaytnn, painted representation of the
20 and 24-year epoch, 219: 22d.

Amen-Ra, the supreme dual -rod of the
Egyptians, 3,-9. 390, 391.

American Association for the Advance
incut of Science. 510. 545.

American Folk-Lore Societx . 510.

American Museum of Natural Hi-torv.
2:54 .

American peoples, 479 5IV.

Ammonites, 351.

A n;tcreon , 453.

Anales del Museo Narional di- Mexico,
"•";, 9:;, 08.

Andastes, 190.

Andean art, compai'ed with Mediterra
nean. 545.

Andrec, Kicliard, .'2, 53.

Angrand, Leonce, 150, 151.

Animal form, as totem, 154; associated
with Four Quarters by Zuni, 295; com
bined with bird, syn'ibol of union of
Above and Below, 296; summary of use
in symbolism, 296; in Chinese calendar.
299, in Buddhist mythology, 318; com
bined with human in Babylonian sym
bolism, 335 (see Human form'.

Anthromorphites, 53<>.

Apis, .-acred Egyptian bull, 399; cult of,
very ancient, 437.

A polio, worshipped in form of a column.
447, 513.

Arabia, star worship, axial rotation,
seven (lay period, etc.. 322. 324. 44s. 482.
495, 556. '

Aratos, 453.

Arcadius, 530.

Architecture, ancient, intluenced bv re
ligious cults of Heaven and Earth, 284 ;
Byzantine, 515: cruciform, 515; sym
bolism of (see Windows, Cone, Tan,
Pyramid. Color, (Jreek fret. etc.\

Arc'tos, 452.

Aristotle, 485, 486, 487.

Arizona, 52, 199.

Arriaga, Padre. 134.

Arrowpoint. barbed, u-ed instead of flint
knife as symbol ot'life-produeing force.
55, 56.

Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, 3(5(5. 369.

A shurbanipal, A ssvrian king, offspring
of Heaven and Earth, 346. '

Asia Minor, compared with North Amer
ica in relation to tertiary plants and
funji-i, 479.

Asiatic contact. 534, 541 (see Pre-Colum
bian contact).

Asiatic Society of Japan. ."65. 575.

Assyria., star-cult, 326: numerical divi
sions, etc. .328; cult of Polaris, 335: an
alogies with China and Central Amer
ica. 349; civilization more recent than
that of Babylonia, 353; founded by
Semitic Babylonians. 354 : rise of pure
monotheism, 355: stela- with seven

bol

1'ol

-tar wor-hip. seven fold division. Four
Quarters, etc.. 3i!7: summary. 483.

Astarte. Assyrian goddess 1igure<l as
<-ow and as moon, 337, 345. 350.

Astronomy, cast of astronomy-leaders.
22; study of, among native 'races, 42:
basis of religion. 43: knowledge of,
amon.L:' Eskimo, 50: and other native
peoples, 5:5: Mexican astronomers, S2:
among the /nni, 205: astronomer
priests of Mexico '274: in China 2*5 •
Chinese. Babylonian. Hindoo, (ha!

(577)

578 INDEX.

dean, Egyptian, Thibetan and Indian,
300. 301; in Chaldea, :',30: in Babylonia
and Assyria, 328. 338; in Egypt, 370, 383;
Egyptian /.odiac signs, illustrated, 395;
the' time when there ceased to be a con
spicuous pole star, 525-520 (see Polaris,
Calendar, etc.).

Atlantis, island of, 440.

Atlatl or spear thrower, 211; on temple
of the Tigers, and on Stone id' Ti/oc,
212.

Attiwendaronks, 190.

A vila, 132.

Axayaeatl, living representative of Huit-
zilbpochtli, 71.

Axial rotation (or wheel) in ancient
religion, symbolism and government:
in Maya name for T"i>a Major. 8-l<>:
title of Mexican supreme divinity,
"Wheel of the Winds," 11. 33; origin
of idea was rotation of Ursa Major
around Polaris; symbolized bv swas
tika symbol. 18-23; imitated by Mexi
can game, "Those who fly," 21; asso
ciated with Mexican Calendar system,
25; indicated byname Teo Culhuacan
or Aztlan. 50; represented by Mexican
sacred dance. 50; indicated in Vienna
Codex by circle of footstep,-. DO; in
Zufii religious ceremony. 129; in relig
ious ceremony and irri gating canals of
Peru. 145, 140; syniboli/.ed by "Nahui-
ollin on Mexican' Calendar Stone, 251-
52; bv one-footed man on Mexican
"Sacrificial Stone, "-259; in ancient plan
of Mexican government, 273; pictured
divinity surrounded by circle of foot
steps, 279; in plan of ancient Chinese
government, 289-291: in calendar svs-
tems of China and Mexico. 292: sym
boli/ed by spider's web, 293: in Chi
nese calendar, 309; the wheel in Hindu
religion, 313. 319; in Babylonia and A s-
syria, 331. 332. 35C, 3(55, 300. 307; "Wheel
of the law " and " lord of the wheel "
of India, in Egyptian symbolism. 39!,
400, 401 ; centrifugal power and rule in
dicated by names of capital cities in
Egypt and Greece, 413; revolving pil
lar on Acropolis at Athens. 447; in Ara
bia, 448; in India, 448; in Plato'.- cos-
mical conception, 449 ; in Homer's
works, 452; in Sophocle-' work, 45:>; in
ancient Greece, polos = a star revolv
ing on itself, 453: Sanscrit u'od. "the.
driver of the axle," 453 : Greek "Ixion's
wheel," 45:!; indicated by cross sym
bol and later by swastika, 401, wheel
associated with Jove on Roman tomb-
-tone. 404: in Scandinavia, the \vain
wheeled around the throne of Thor.
473; Turanian god of heaven = the
pole turned by the revolving davs and
weeks. 499: symbols of. in Old and
New World. 401-544; summary. 544.
Ayllu, Peruvian word for tribe or line
age, 141.
A/.tlan, land of light. 5«, 57.

Baal, Assyrian god, 345; worshipped un
der image of bull, 410.

Babylonia, Chinese immigrants from.
290; Middle kingdom. 200; astronomy,
300; starcuH, 320; numerical divis
ions, etc., 328: either a mountain or a
star signified a god, 325): astronomical
observations of great antiquity, 329;

oriented to the Four Quarters, 333; de
cline' of the empire. 347; female ruler,
347: described in Revelations; .-even
fold organization, 348; ^even-staged
towei-, 350; seven-fold state, 357; altars
of sold. 3(51.

i Babylonia-Assyria, the 15abylonia triad,
Ann. Ka, and liel. signify the Above
Middle and Below, 33»i; compared with
p,-ods of China, 330; combined Heaven
and Karth cult, 344: seven-fold oru-an-
i/ation, 300; seven-staged tower (7ik-
kurat^ and the great basin (Ap*n) sym
boli/ed cosmological conceptions; free
or pole as sacred symbol; lire-stick,
301; worship of Polaris; irale and fe
male principles in nature, 303; New
Year's festival, 304; summary and
conclusions, 3(57, 544.
P.acab, title of Maya chief, 8B; title of

rulers of Four Quarters, 1>V3.
Bailly, 31!).

Balam, Maya word for ocelot; title of
four lords of Below or Earth; same as
chac, 1S5.
Balboa. 150.
Ball, C. .T..302.

Bandelier. Ad. F.. 01,74, 79, 84, 108, 200.
Baptism. Maya. 2-25.
Barber. Commander, U. S. X., 159.
Bartholomew de las Casas, Friar. 32.
Bat. symbol of happiness, 277.
Bat-kih-ya-infth, the Water people, 200.
Bastian,' A., 153.

Bead, jade bead, as symb< 1 in Mexico,
81; "gold bead," used as litle; symbol
ical among the Mayas. 237.
Beard, on stela> at Copan and (Ju'rigua.
219. 2:'0; on c.alendar sign; on images of
air god, 231; worn by renresentative,s
of A hove, 231 ; not worn bs' representa
tives, of Below, 231; in pictorial art. 232:
on portrait statue of Stein E, at Quiri
gua, '232; bearded personages on stehv
were high-priests, etc., £32; beardless
effigies indicated different caste. 232;
bearded Spaniards regarded, by Mexi
can--, descendants of foui ders of their
civilization, 206: emblem of sover
eignty in Egypt. 420
Bee, Maya word l'or = cab: Cab glvph.

110.

Beetle (see Scarab1).
Belt ram de Santa "Rosa, Frnv, 89, 101.
Benares, temple of: sacred cow. 310.
Bentham. 47*5.
•Rentier, 300.
Bevichten der Deutschen Botauischcn

Gesellschaft, 478.
Berlin Museum, 380. 417,428,424,426,427.

457. 400, 507.

Berra, Orozco y. 204, 208. 2fi.).
B. N. MS. (Biblioteca Nax.ionale MS.),

same as " Lvl'e of the Indians."
Biblioteca Nazionale Manuscript (in
press), 7. 9. 11, 12. 34. 37. :«', 44, 45. 40.47,
54. 57. (',4. do, 71. 99, 102, 111, 112, 125, 128,
130 189, 241, 279,505.
Biot. 298, 301.

Bird, title ot Mexican wir chief, 25;
humming-bird in symbolism, 39: with
spider, serpent and' cross on shell gor
get. 49; Bird-god, borne on litter, 71 ;
ancient Yucatan in shape of bird, 80:
illustrated ,-ocial organization in Mex
ico. 87; totem of Incas, 157: on arms of
Mexico. 157: on sculptures at Tiahua-

INPKX.

579

naeo, 107; iu;ui-l)iril represented ruler
ut' upper division of State iu .Mexico,
18"); tvp;caloi lords ol' tour provinces
in .Mexico, 1'JO; blue-bird, Mc\ic:in
symbol. l'.»i>; n:iinc ol' N:iliu;itl tribe. •_> i •;,
214: three most powerful tnhc- oi Vu-
cat.-in have bird name.-, --'17; on altar at
< opan,228; in sculptures :it Palempiie.
an I in .Mexican Fejervary chart. 235;
mask in .Mexican festival, 242; totem of
the Air people in Mexico, 2.4: reca
pitulation ol meaning of -ymnol, -_82;
u.-e of as svmhol. 2.«j: vulture, symbol

01 Upper h--\ pt. 3,.s..
Birduood, Geo., 3!4. 5,'5.

Black foot Indians, myth about Ui>a

Major, fill.
Black, Robert, 52<>.
Black sun, in 1',. N". MS., 54.
Blood orteiinirs, meaning of, 98, 99,44-2.
Boas, h ran/., 147.
Boat, in sculptured lias -relief at Chichen-

It/.a, KJU; in Babylonian symbolism,

.'Mi; in Egyptian symbolism, 403; Egyp-

lian. Grecian, Phoenician in earlv tiin'es,

491.
Bochica or lda-can-za<, culture hero of

the .Muyscas: personification of the

Suu or Above, 171.
Bodleian M.S., 44, 90.
Bodleian Librarv at ( >xford, 508.
Boeckh, 48S.
Bogota, dual government, calendar, etc..

171.

Bohn, 48!>.

Book of the Dead, 37-2, 374, 38ii. 3*7, 404.40!',.
Book of -Mann, 317.
Book of Yu, 29(5.
Bopp and Pott, 500.
Botiu-ini. 150, 180, 181, 182, -2r,8. 2»5'.».
Bourhouru;. B. de, 35, (i9, 8.1. 191. 2oi>, 211,

2 Hi, 217,271.

Bournout, 448, 451.

Bovallius, Di-., 230.

Bowl or va^e see Vase"/.

Brahma nism, 312, 31.;.

Brandenburg, spearhead from, illustrat
ing triskelion and swastika associated,
28."

Br.indsford, J. F., 50.

Brazil, wooden clubs with Greek fret.
121; symboli.-m, etc., compare*! with
that o I other ancient American civiliza
tion*, 224.

Breath, pull's of, conventionalized on Co-
pa n .-lab, 2 23; on has- relic I at. Palen<|ue.
223; at (Juirigua. 223 ; compared with
Zimi svinbo!i.-m, 223: in Cupan, 280.

Brinton.'D. G.. f.O.r.i), 72,82, ^8, '.'3. 100,107,
in.1,110, 111.112. KH, 171, 17.r),17S, 181,182,
I'.il, J:,2, 217, 230.

Britain, ancient, numerical division-,
middle, central ruler, quadruple or
ganization, 4TO, 493.

British (iniana. wooden clubs with
" (ireek fret," 121.

Britisli Musi-inn. 151. 1'JG, 231, 353, 3o.j,.'J5»;,
357, 3(>6. 457, 45'.i.

Brown, Robert. 324, 32."), 327, 338. :j*?4.

Brim-sch, 370. 37*;, .".77, 37*. 37'.», 382, 38."),
387, 3 HO. 3! )S, 395. 3'i7. 39-, 39.i, 40 >. 4ol,
402. 10), ,0 :, 407, 418. 4T.I. -123, 421, 425.
.429, 431, 432. 433. 43''.. 437, 43*. 439. 41(1.
441, 412.

Buddhism, 294, 298. .'Ml. 3'ii;. 311. .",14.

Budire, \Vallis, 3>;7. 3 .8. 370, 371, 372. 37:'..
374, 375, 379, 382. 38 S 389, 391, 394, 397,
425. 437: 443.

Bull, winged bulls of Babylonia and
Aesyriu,356; symbolism of, 337; Yahwc
national god of the Hebrews, represent
ed as man or as bull, 350; astronomical
sign in Kgypt tor Ursa .Major, and pos
sibly of Solaris, 3X5; linguistic reasons
why king of Egypt was entitled " the
bull," 385; title ol Egyptian supreme
deity. 389; cow, bull or ox, in Egyptian
zodiac signs, 3;»5: Apis, sacred' bull of
Egypt, 3. >9; in inscription in temple of
I>< liderah, 4ol ; Baal worshipped under
image of, 410: Egyptian ku, rebus, signi-
lying Polaris and Ursa .Major, 41o; title
o'l Amen Ka, 410; associated with the
goose in svmbolism, 418: .Minotaurus,
i uler of Crete, 457.

Burgei1, George, 48<i.

Burial urn, emblem of eaith mother, 10U.

Buschmann, Dr., 153. 155, 158, 1«5, 172.

Butterfly used as symbol of immortal
soul by Mexicans, "39; symbol of Cen
tre and Four Quarters, 4*7.

Byzantine architecture, 515.

Cab, Maya day sign, won! for bee, also
earth, 109; honey, 110: associated with
lemale principle, 111).

Cabal, day-sign, on Co pan altar, 227.

Caban, Maya day-sign, identical with
symbol of earth, 107; ligtired with
leaves ol maize, 109; the Below, 227.

Cav-ar. called the Son of the Sun, 44U,
470. 537.

Cakchiquel Indians of Guatemala, 79:
court of, 79; obsidian mirror used as
oracle, K); Annals of, 1(34; legend sug
gesting form of government, 172; tribal
division associated with calendar, 178,
179: tradition iu relation to 7-dav pe
riod, 1-2.

Calendar systems, Mexican, 7; suggested
by Polaris and eircumpoJar constella
tions, 25; Maya, origin of, 35; Mexican,
monograph on, 53; origin of, 100; an
cient Peruvian, 145 ; among the Muyscas,
171 : connection between calendar signs
and divisions of the people, 175; a gov
ernmental institution, 179: invention of
native system bv ancient inhabitants
of Chiapas, 182; 'among the Zuiii, 205;
kept profound secret by priesthood,
205; Maya, 220; lixed term of ortice for
ancient American rulers, 221; Mexican,
originated from the tixed market days,
245: signs identi lied with different parts
of human form, 282: instituted by the
Chinese emperor. Yaou, 2>9, 292; com
parison of American and Chinese, 297,
298, 299, 309; Chaldean and Hindoo,3(»0;
Japanese compared with Mexican, 311:
Hindu with Mexican, 31'.); Assvrian
and Babylonian, 337, 34S,349; ancient
Egyptian, 377. 37s^ lunar and solar.
439; Esne calendar. 440: Canopus cal
endar, 441 : Central American and Mex
ican. 528: time when first adopted, 529,
53!).

Calendar-stone of Mexico. 12; night sun
pictured on. 13; symbol of live dot-
compared with same on recumbent
stone ligure. 95: market stone of the
City of Mexico, regulated social organ-
i/.ation. 245; special work on, bv Zelia
Nuttall, 24(j; image of "Great Plan" or
Scheme of Organization, 247; Jigured
and described, 24>'-258; regulated ma
chiuery of statv, 254: Gama's, Valen-

.r>so

INDEX.

tine's and Chavero's descriptions, 250;
based on observation ol' Polaris, '257;
embodied UK- idea of a central, dual
and quadruple power, etc.. 258; con
tain.- symliol of union of dual princi
ples of nature1, '280.

Calendar-swastika. 9, IS, 41 (see Swas
tika .

(California Indians, use today two sym
bol- in use bv ancient Mexicans and
Maya,-, /. r., " flint-knife and "stone
yoke,'' 104. 10.").

(';illi, Nahuatl for western liori/.on = tin-
house, 38; one uf the four-year symbols.
Tti; meaning, the house, 253.

Campina de Puebla,275.

Can. Maya word for serpent, 38; serpent
and numeral four, 50, ] 10, J12: allix in
names of towns, Iroquois, Maya and
Mexican, 198; associated witli pyramid
as Teotihua-Can, 203; in Chinese and
Maya associated with fourfold divis
ion', -288.

Canaan, account of Hebrew religion, 350.

Canada, Iroquois town. 197; Maya mean
ing of, 19s.

Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, 440.

Capital, Maya word for, liomonymons
with live = ho, 25(5.

Caracol. or Hound Temple, of Chiehen
It/a, built by Quetzaleoatl, represent
ing Middle and Four Quarters, and cen-
t re of dominion, 97 .

( 'ardinal points, assignmentof colors and
parts of human body, 293. 294; associ
ated with form of quadruped among
the Zufii ,25)5 (see Four Quarters).

Carillo, Crescendo, 85, 86.

Carthaginians, having knowledge of an
island in the ocean, 540.

('artier. 197.

Cary's translation of Herodotus, 437.

Caryatids, at Chichen-Itza, 212.
'assiopeia, 22, 25, 2(5,29, 40, 49.
'aste, in Peru, 143: in Mexico, 27.'}.

Castelnau, 150.

'at, sacred symbol in Egypt, 408.
.'atari, chronicler of the incas, 151.
eli-C'ed, the dual power, from which
the universe was horn (Drnidic), 471.

Centipede, Mexican symbol, 18(5.

Central America, fundamental basis of
government and civilization. 15: sym
bolical form in architecture. 113, 119;
carved stone seats or altars, 283 (see
Copan. (Guatemala, etc.).

Centre (stable centre or middle), in an
cient government, religion, and symbol
ism: Polaris, the centre of axial en
ergy, 22. 30; centre of the Cosmos,
among /unis. Mayas, Mexicans and
Peruvians, 41 : symbols of, 40: on shell
gorgets, 49: divergence from idea, 52:
represented by recumbent stone fig
ure, 9i5 ; among Incas, 13(5, 142, 144; ami
Four Quarters represented on carved
slab from Santa Lucia, 172: in ancient
American game, 178; in Fe.jervary Co
dex, 178: in social organization,' 180;
on sculpture of Lord of Above, 186;
colors associated with, 192; among the
Zuni, 202; in Copan Swastika, 222, 224,
225: on Tablet of the Cross at Palenqne.
23'!, 243; union with Four Quarters in
Mexican calendar-stone, 250, 258: on
Mexican monolith " Divine Twin, "2(50.
2(52, 2(54; symbolized by pyramid, 27;!,
274; word* and symbols connected with

277: associated with swastika, 280;
expressed by pyramid, 282; tv pilled
by cross-legged human figure, 283; ex
pressed in (lower svmbol, 284; Chinese
" Middle kingdom/' 286. 287, 288, 291.
294, 299: in America, symbolized In
human heart and navel*, in China by
stomach. 290; in Chinese religion, 30(1* ;
.Japan called "Centre of the Earth,"
3K): represented by statue of Buddha,
314: Nirvana, 315; in Hindu religion.
317: in religion of Arabia. 323, 324; of
Persia. 325; of Babylonia, 330. 333: .Je
rusalem, sacred spot marking the centre
of the world. 352; in Babylonia-Assyria
3(54; in Egypt, 370, 379, 3*0, 381, 384/385.
380, 394; expressed by mummy-shaped
object, also by cone, 410: by a crown.
412; by a (lower, 415; in Egyptian feast,
Tekhu. 439; in ancient government of
Crete, 457; in ancient Home, 4(53; in an
cient Ireland, Britain and Wales, 468-
471; in Scandinavia, 472; in cross-sym
bolism. 511; in religious ideas of Old
and New World, 517, 535; summary and
conclusions, 544.

Century Dictionary, 452, 4(54.

Cezalcouatl, name for Knkulcan, (59.

Chaac Mool or Lord Tiger, name given
by Le Plongeon to the recumbent lig-
u're bearing circular vessel, found in
Chichen-ltza, 95 (see " Recumbent
stone figure") .

Chac (Maya) red color; also rain, storms,
thunder and Lightning; title of Lord
of Below, 185.

Chac-noni-tan, name for Yucatan, 210.

Chalchihnitl =jade, 34. 91: jade beads,
8 1 .

Chalmers, John, 511.

Chambers' Encyclopaedia. 452 4(52, 463,
465, 484, 564.

Chamberlain, Basil Hall, 505,508, 571, 574,
575.

Chariot, symbolism of, 313, 500, 501.

Chavero, A., 33, 01, 253, 25(5.

Che, Maya word for tree; in names of
tribes, 199, 234.

Checker-board (or tartan) design, formed
by tans, 122, 123, 124.

Ch'en, Maya day sign, 110.

Cheles, one of the Yucatan tribes. 217.

Cherokees, 196.

Chess board, in Egypt, 124.

Chiapas, the present home of the Tzen-
dals: native calendar system, 180,182;
migrations from, 210; numerical divis
ions, 528.

Chichen-ltza, culture-hero ruled in, 68.
69; recumbent stone figure bearing-
circular vessel, 93, 185, 214; connection
established with Mexico by Kukulcan
(Quetzaleoatl), 93; Caraco'l or Hound
Temple, 97; lias-relief illustrating nav
igation by boats, 160; tradition about
settlement of, 207: evidence of Aztec
influence, 212; classification of ruins,
216; tablet in house of " Tennis-court"
259.

Chichimecs, sacrifices by, 60.

Chicome-coatl, literally, seven-serpents,
title of earth mother, 181.

China, cosmical symbol compared with
those of Copan and Mexico, 114; sym
bols of Above and Below, 118; sound of
words, in symbolism, 270; pole-star
worship, 284'; the emperor at Pekin
termed the .Sou of Heaven and the

INDEX.

581

Empress inhabits tin- palace of Earth's '
repose; Yang and Yin: Above and lie-
low, etc., 2sti; reason of deformation of
feet. 2S7; (how I>\ nasty, fourfold plan
ot Cities, linguistic ath'n'ities with Mex
icans and Mayas. •• ljuadriform consti
tution." 2ss; calendar system, social
and religions organization compared
with that of ancient America. 291, 292,
293; tallies showing the agreement and
divergence in ancient systems of China
and America. 2ii3; assignment of colors I
and of part sol' human body to cardinal
point-. 2'.»4 ; comparttive study of sym-
holism. 2:« ;; sociai organization, etc.,
297: calendar and numerical system,
297. "21 is; origin of civilixation. 29i»; as
tronomical system, :;on. ;Mi ; Buddhism,
301. 303, :;i:): primitive calendar. 301;
Taouism, 3<il ; Chinese language said
to he the -ameas Akkadian, 30-2; civil-
i/ation not indigenous, emigration into,
3n:i; Dowager Empress Ling, 304; Is
raelites. 303-30M: Christians.' 3n<i; fun-

tit

later, divergent. 3no. ;;o7. :; is. ;;u'.i; Heav
en and Earth cult practised at the pres
ent time, 344: summary of numerical
divisions, 483; use of wheel from earli
est times. 5<il-5n2; use of Cro \mbol

with idea of central power. 511: resem
blances and differences. Chinese- and
Maya Mexican. 533.534: doubt about
extreme age of governmental scheme,
533: cele-tial kingdom dates from lirsl
centurv. 541, 542: summary and con
clusions'. .-,41 ;.

Choiula, contains largest pvramid in
America, 208; built as place of refuge
from inundations. •>'}, -J7-j; place of
sanctity, 275: also called Cholola or I
Colola, 275; marks site of great and an- I
cient Tollan, 275. 270, 529.

Cholollan. pyramiil.a venerated sanctu
ary, 209; tradition concerning, 27"; na
tive name is •• tollan.'' 275 s -e Tullan
Cholollan .

Christianity, in China. 3n5. 3nr>; period of
growth, persecution of pagans. 53u. 531 :
St. Augustine states that it has existed
from the beginning. 530, 537, 53s, 539. 541 .

Chueii. Ma\a day-siii'ii. 112.

Cib. Maya day-sfgn, 109, 110, 111.

Cibola. seven' cities of, 2o:j.

Cicero, 4ss. 520.527.

Ciexa de Leon. 132. 150.

Cihuacoatl. the earth motlie.r. Hint knife
in wrappings, symbol of. 55: the
Woman serpent (or twin . r,o; name of
(Juilaztli, On: female ruler. 02. 03. 04:
Mexican ruler. 07: personification of
Earth. 70; Montexuma's substitute. 77:
duties of. auvnts of. 7s; ottered sacri
fice to god of I'nderworld. 79; com
pared with s -rpent in Maya ( 'odex. Ill:
emblem of. 12>: female t'itle of lord of
tin- night. 1-1.

( ipactli. Mexican sign for a •' marine
mon-t-M-.'' 228.

Circle, symbol of heaven. 20ii; inlluence
on ancient architecture and svmbolism.
2>4 : with dot. Egyptian sign for time,

< irde or rin--, symbol of Egyptian "lord
of the ring.'' Hindu " lord of tin-
wheel." Per-ian "god of the rin-r." and '
Mexican -'lord of the circle." 401.

Circle or disk, Egyptian symbol, 402, 412,
444; also in Peru, 444.

Circumpolar constellations, studied by
primitive man, ].">; in relation to origin
of swastika symbol, ]">; form triskelion
on night of winter-solstice, 27; relation
to sacred numbers, 2!»; associated with
idea of death and resurrection, 3i>; in
relation to underworld, 40; four move
ments of, 54; in connection with cult of
Jielow, r>4; worship of in Old World.
3S3-3S7 (see 1'leiades, Trsa Major, Ursa
Minor, 1'olaris .

Circumpolar region, probable birth-place
of cult of Polaris. 47.">; place where
human race probably spent its infancy,
47."i; fauna and flora", 47f>, 47S. 471).

Circuinpolar rotation, represented by
swastika and star-symbols on ]>ottery,
,"iO-.V2; compared to rotation of fire-drill
by earlv peoples, 502 (see Rotation or
Wheel)".

Clavigero, '24, 25, 58.

Claws (or nails, of the state, title of war
riors, S7: in Mexican calendar-stone,
24'.»; on monolith " Divine Twin, -201.

Cliff duellers, tan as symbol. 11JI.

Clubs '\\tioden. from South America and
Pi-i-u, with symbolical designs. 122.

Coatl (serpent or t \\iii in connection
with tree symbolism, 1SS; compared
with /uni Koa = twin. 2ui.

Cocomes, Maya tribe. 2u;i, -_>I4.

< dilices : Borgian, 27, :}(>. 55. ill, 115, 98, 103,
1HJ. ls',1, 5u4, 5ii5; Chimalpopoca, 270;
( humaxel,s5; Cortesian, 111 ; Dresden,
35.37, 39, 41, 45, llo, 18:>; Fejervary, i),
H». 44, 107; Fuenleal, 8, lo, 12, 33* 44;
Mendo/a, <;:;. 87, 88. 117, 118, 122, 130, 173,
2(>i; Telleriano-Remensis, lo, 11, 240;
Troano. 8(!. lo1.), lid; Vatican, 11. 44, 55,
5fi, 78. SO; Vienna, 34, 44, 8ti, iMJ, 100, 103,
119. 123. 127.

Coii-olludo, 89. 180. 2013, 210, 218.

Coiebrookand Bentley, :'»oo.

( Olhuacan, Mexican local name, 2f!3.

Color, red in Mexico, associated with
north 57; cult of Earth. 185; title. 193;
blue, associated with rulership and di
vinities, «;i, 62,91,214; black, associated
with Texcatlipoca and with Quila/tli,
(!2; vellow, color of the west, female re
gion. <;4: meaning of. 114. 115; on Moki
masks. 119; in tan design. 122; on an
cient Mexican temple.- and sculptures,
128: in Peruvian symbolism, 130; in
/uni symbolism, 130; in architecture at
LTxmaf, 131; used to denote social status
by Peruvians, Mayas, Mexicans and
/'unis, 192: associated with four (Quar
ters and Above and Below, 192. 251;
used for face and bodv painting, 193;
Huaxtecan mantle of li've hundred col
ors, 2ns; painting of caryatids in Chi-
chen It/a, 212; s\ mbolic'at Copan and
(^uirigua. 2.".3; emblematic, in China,
2sU; assigned to elements bv Mexicans,
/unis ami Chinese. 2no. 29:! :' assigned to
cardinal ]ioints. in ( hina and America,
2'.M : in Buddhist temple: in Quet/al-
coatl'- t -m | iles in Mexico, 295; in Hindu
caste, 313; in Babylonia, 328; in Egypt,
red associated with the north and male
sex, and white with south and female
sex, 3l»9, 373, 425.

Colorado, cliff dwellers, 119.

Column, sacred, in great temple of Mex
ico, 5:5; on hill of justice in (iuatemala,

INDEX.

79; stelio at Copnn and Quirigua, 220,
230, 512; laws inscribed on, centre of
island Atlantis; laws of Solon inscribed
on, in centre of Athenian state; of
Apollo at Delphi, 447; the cosmical
round tower of Ireland, 470; at Mitla,
Mexico, 513: svinbolisin of, in Old and
New World, 5i3, 517.
Confucianism, 115. 289. 2S»S, 300.
Cone, in Mexican ollin-sign. signified the
Above. 118; used in native architecture ;
culminated in p\ ramid. 118; represent
ed bv shape of windows in ancient
ruins'. I2n; >>n sunniiit of House of the
Do\cs at r.\inal, 131.

Conical stone, on which human victims
were sacrificed, IIS.

Congress of Americanists, 230, 2:!!.
Congress of Orientalists, 544.
Conquest Stone of Mexico. "Sacrificial
Stone," "Tribute Stone," 258. 5i)7.

Constantine, 509, 51:;. 514. 515, 530; liis nu
merical scheme compared with same in
India. Mexico and Yucatan, 542, 54:!.

Copan. lentil-shaped stone altar, from,
11:5; carved stela1, 215; purpose of erec
tion. 21ti: study of the ruins, 21'.); cult
of 1'olaris illustrated by carved slab
in temple, 11, 222: numerical organi-
/.ation illu.-tratcd. 222; numerical divis
ions, symbolism, etc.. identical with
those of Peru. Guatemala, Mexico, Yu
catan, /i mi, etc.. 22(1, 228, -23'>: numerical
divisions on altar conform with /ufii
clan-organi/ation. 221); bearded etligies,
2:51 : dual rulers, 232; totemic, animals
and symbolic colors, 233; excavation at
Mound. 4. 2.'};}; same cult as that of Pa-
lemjue and Quiri»-ua, 240; carved stone
seats or altars, 2S:5: alligator-altar, 2'.)5;
stela1 as memorial columns, 512, 513;
remnants of old civilization, 528.

Copan s\\a-tika, compared with design
on clul) from South America, 224; com
pared with tablet in '-Temple of the
Sun,'' 231) (see also Swastika).

Copts, 530.

Cord ^Mayakaan), associated with Maya
word for Heaven = caan, and with
glyph, ct t ii. 11-2; meaning of carved gor
get worn on a cord, 112; sky represent
ed as a circle composed of a cord to
which stars were attached, 113: on len
til-shaped stone altar at Copan, 114;
on shield of Mexican god, 128; on Co-
pan stela, 211).

Corinth, roin with swastika, 459.

Cortes, 31. Ii7, li.S, 74. 75, 77, 1)7, 107, 150. 171,
1S3, 208. 245, 204, 200. 542.

Cosmos, four-fold and seven-fold divis
ions of. in Peru. Mexico, Yucatan,
/ufii. 41. 42: in Babylonia, India, Per
sia, etc. ,328; in pagan philosophy, 484.
m;/V(see separate headings ; also,Quad-
ruple Organization ami N'umerical Di-
visions).

Cow. venerated in India, 310: Canaan
goddess. Astartc, in form of. 337; Fgyp-
tian god Isis (Hathor) worshipped un
der form of. 400: or bull, cult of Apis
in F-ypt. 437 (sue Hull .

Cox. 2-'.'). 451.

Coya, wife or sister <if Inca. 134.

Co/.umel cross, called svmbol of " rain-
god." 2SU.

Creation myths, ancient Mexican. 54, 55,
5('.; /ufii, 105, 200, 223; Peruvian. 13S;
Hindu, 313-318; liabvlonian, 334, 340;

Babylonian and Hebrew evidently

from same source, 353.
Creator, or " Supreme lieiiiir," in Mexico.

8; title " wheel of the winds," 11: Po
laris, 22; worshipped bv ancient Amer
icans. 32, 30; earliest form of; feath
ered serpent, image of, 70; the four el
ements regarded as attributes of. !)'.):
belief in, represented by mushroom-
shaped stone liiuire, 115;" Inca knowl
edge of, 135, 141); Qnechua title for;
Mexican title for, 151): in Peru, identi
fied with Mexican '-Lord who guides,"
or Polaris : and associated with 'star and
cross. 1(51 : image of at Cuzco, 102: wor
ship of in Texcoco, 103: in Peru, 104;
in Tiahuanaco, 168; native title, "Heart,
of Heaven" 181); in Mexico represented
by rebus of the feathered serpent, 201);
Nahuatl title, expressed by an eye and
pyramid in picture-writing, 2iil): Divine

'Twain, Father and Mother of all. in
Mexico, Quetzaleoatl, 27u; in China.
3(12; Akkadian name for symbol, an
eight-pointed star. 302. 304; among the
Hindu. 312; Brahmanistic conception
of, 314: in Persia, 325; in Babylonia,
32D. 330; among the Hebrews = Yahwe
lord of Heaven, 304, 351.352: in ancient
Egypt, 31)7. 403, 412, 444; in Plato's Tim-
aui's, 441): the Norse, Thor, 473; the
source of the four elements, 510; com
parison of names in Old and New
World, 532; summary, 548.

Cremation, significance of. 100.

Crete, Greek plan of organization came
from, description of symbols on coin
457; ancient philosophy of, 480-488.

Cross-bones, origin of symbol, 184.

Cross-legged seated figures, on Central
American stone seats or altars. 283:
emblem of stable centre and Four
Quarters. 283.

Cross-symbol, Maya and Mexican, fig
ured and described. 37, 38. 45, 40. 47: on
slu'll gorget from Tennessee. 41). 50; on
pottery from Missi.-sippi Valley. 51;
from Arizona, 52: on Iroquois belt, 198;
in symbolical carving from Hra/il or
Guiana, 224; four-spoked wheel as cross
symbol in Assyria, 350; emblem of sov
ereignty in Babylonia-Assyria, 305:
used as symbol at earlier period than
swastika. 401; with idea of Central
power. 511: emblem of Christian relig
ion, 535, 530; summary, 544 (see Swas
tika).

Cross-tablets at. Palenque, 237, 238. 23!).

Cross-worshippers, Chinese name for
Christians. 305.

Cruciform structures, vaults under stelae
at Copan and Ouirin'iia. 512; at Mitla,
Mexico. 513: at Home, 514: buildings
and churches of later period. 515; at
Byy.antium, 515; in Syria. 515: in India.
510; summarv and conclusions, 544.

Cru/.. Alon/o d'e la, 230.

Cubas, ( iarcia, 218. 231.

Culin. Stewart, 178.

Cum-ahau. name of divinity of Yucatan,
93, 222. 220.

Cup-shaped depression, on stone altar at
Copan, 111.

Cushinir, Frank IT.. 41. 99, 115. 129. 132,
P. i2, 200, 201, 203, 205, 20(5, 227. 2'.)5, 511,
574.

Cuzco, "navel of the earth," 133; plan
of city, Centre and Four Quarters, 136;

INDEX.

583

founded by Manco Capae, 156; temnle,

facing norl h and continuing gold im
age of --Creator," 103; gold plaque
troni, 108: s\ in holism analogous to
.Mexican and Mava, 17o.

Dahlgren. E. W., 23".

D'Alviella.Coblet, lit, 45'.).

Dances, sacred..')?: description of Mexi
can dance, representing wheel or axial
rotation. 58, 59: of Mold Indian, 119;
at«'u/co, 14."); Sun pole dance of Amer
ican Indians. 313, n»1c.

Davis. .1. F.. 3oo.

Da\ '-sign, Mava and Mexican, To, 107-
l'l2: 'influence of, 177: totem of clan.
M>. 179; Cabal, on Copan altar. -2:27 : and
year signs of native calendar, 248; in
calendar-stone, 253; names of, used as
personal and trihal names, 253.

Death, synihol of, 39.

Deer, mask of, K::>.

Deities, Axlec, uuinher of. same god un
der several names, 8.

Demosthenes, lantern of, 127.

Denderah. 4'M).

Denni>. J. S.. 4x>.

DeKossi, 514.

Desjardins. 150.

Destruction of the earth, Mexican tra
ditions concerning. 270, 271.

Dhruva, 495. 49(5.

Diaz, P.ernal. 71, 72, 75, 77, SO, 90. 97. 245,
265, 542.

Din-gira. Akkadian name for (iod. 302.

Diocletian, 514.

Divination, in connection with u~e of
mirrors. 83: origin of 177; in China,
Thibet and India. 301.

Divine Twin (see Duality}.

Documentor ineditos del Archivio de
Indias. 77.

Dog-, head of, on sculptures from Santa
Lucia. 105; Maya word for = men. 234.

Donellv. Ignatius, 374. 516.

D'Orbigny, 15o.

Douglas, R. K., 285, 291. 298, 299, 302.

Draconis. observation in Egypt, 384.

Dragon, at Quirigna. 233.

Dragon-fly, employed as cross-symbol,
on Algonquin garment, 4s.

Druids, 470, 471.

Drums. 58, 59. 00. 213.

Duality or " Divine Twin,'' symbol of,
39; conventional representation of. 4t',;
idea of. 47; dual stellar divinity , 50,
57: represented in sacred dance, 59: l>y
male and female ruler, 02; develop
ment of idea. 07; twin brothers as rul
ers in Yucatan. OS; Monte/uma. imper
sonation of. 73. 77. 78; in Peruvian >ym-
boliMii. 134: the " Beloved Twain" of
the /uni. 2o(i: Quetzalcoatl and Kuknl-
can, 223; final ruler at Cf>i»an. 228; in
Quiriirua. 232: on Palenque tablet, 245;
on Mexican Calendar Stone. 249: in
Mexican >culpture. 251, 20D-202: final
government at time of Conquest. 200;
in China. 2s5; in Hindu religion. 312;
in India. 314; in Babylonia-Assyria,
342; in Egypt. 3S9. 397. 399. 410, 412,' 415.
423: in ancient Rome. 403; in ancient
Ireland. 4«is; in Druidic tradition- of
Wales. 471.

Duemichen.385.

Duran. Friar. 2<>. 41. 5C,. 57. 58.01. 71. 77,
78, 80, 88, 182, 241, 243, 245, 258. 282.

Eagle (quauhtli), associated with Cassi
opeia: title of Mexican war chief. 25,
KJ7; Kagle-woman.CO; among the Incas,
15i>; on bas-reliefs of Santa Lucia,
Guatemala , 156, 157: totem of one or
more of the Incas, 157; on bas-relief in
City of Mexico, 157: in arms of Mexico,
157; symbol of Above among the /uni,
204: symbol of state in Mexico and Cen
tral America. 295; summary of use as
symbol, 29(>.

Kartli. 01- •• The P>elo\v." in ancient relig
ion and symbolism: in ancient Mexi
can and Maya cosmos: in secret beliefs
of /.uni priests, 41 ; female region. 42;
lord of, 45; cult of. 54: associated with
woman, (JO-05; sacrifices to. 06; Ci-
huacoatl, personification of, 70; sacri
fices to god of. 79; in connection with
human sacrifice s, 91; sacred rites, 97,
98: in /uni ceremonies, 100; in connec
tion with cremation. lo<5; symbol of, in
use by California Indians, ' 100; priest
esses of, buried in caves, 107; symbols
of, 110; associated with image "of ser
pent, 111 ; with angular form, 113; com
posed of lire and water, 113; on altar at
Copan, 114; associated with square
form and bowl, 115; flat-topped mitre
worn by lord of. 110; Chinese symbol,
118; sacrifices 118; tan upright, em
blem of, 118. 119; cult of, in Peru,
13(1, 133, 134. 135. 141, 142; idea pre
vailed in Tiahuanaco, 100; among the
Muyscas, 171; in calendar, 179; in so
cial organization, ISO; 181; associated
with animal form, 184. 185; color asso
ciated with, 192: associated with female
principle, 193; votaries of. 195; in /uni
social system, 2(»2, 203, 204: priests of,
represented without beards on sculpt
ures at Copan and Quirigua. 231, 232;
moon symbol of cult, 207: cultivation
of mai/.e, by daughter of, 270; symbo
lized by quadruped, 282; vase, emblem
of. 283'; associated with square form,
and darkness; influence on primitive
architecture and symbolism, 28t; flower
used as symbol of, 284: in China. 285;
288. 290. 307; in Hindu religion, cult of
Siva, 314; in Persian religion, 325; in
Assyrian and Babylonia cult, 334, 336,
338/339; cult combined with that of
Above practised in China at present
time. 344; Uaal. IMnenician god of
Karth, 351: in Kgypt.381: symbolized
in Scandinavia by Thor's hammer, 474;
table of countries where traces of cult
have been found, 480; summarv and
conclu>ions, 544.

Earth-mother, represented by Cihua-
coatl. 79: pictured in Borgia'n Codex,
98; /uni symbol of, KM), 200. 2<H 'see
Karth or the Below, also Cihua-
coatl .

Earth-work builders of the Ohio valley,
50. 1U9. 2SO.

Eddas, written by agricultural people,
having knowledge of the lire -drill, axial
rotation, etc.. 5<i-_>. 503.

Kirypt. crux ansata. 119; checker
board doign : basis of chess-board, 124;
civilization mainly Enphratean, 327;
explanations and illustrations of Egyp
tian symbols. 307-401 : color symbolism ;
high development of pole-star wor
ship: territorial divisions, 308; Four
Quarters; hieroglyph' for capital or

584

INDEX.

city, cross symbol with four divisions,
309,371; pyramid, and square form as
sociated with earth, and round with
sky, 371; numerical divisions, 375;
seven-told organization, centre, Po
laris, 370; calendar. 377. 378; sky-god- |
dessNut 378; lotus llower symbol, 379;
Polaris, 'sphinx, pyramid, Middle, 379; i
mummy, Polaris, 380, 383; Ursa Major, j
used as a measurer of time. 384; bull,
used as astronomical sign of l'r.-a
Major, king entitled " The Bull," 385;
Amen-Ka.the supreme, dual god : king-
associated with sun. and queen with
moon, 389; hawk-headed god, An. com
pared with Assyrian, Creek and Mexi
can gods of the circle or wheel, 401;
Egyptian queen analogous in position
to Mexican Quila/tli, 428, 429; festival
of Tekliu, 439; becomes a Roman prov
ince, 440; cult of dual principles of
nature, 441: summary, 483; the sacred
and tribal tree, 499; the symbolical use
of the column, 513: Aha Mena, first,
historical ruler, was a builder, 532;
summary and conclusions, 544.

Faber. 510.

Fauna and flora of the tertiary period,
in Old and New World, 470-479.

Feather, symbol of divinity (Mexican
and Maya), 69, 70; names signify some
thing divine, 129; Egyptian symbol,
390, 409, 410.

Feathered serpent, origin of use as sym
bol, 09; effigies of in Mexico, 70; used
as rebus to ex-press Supreme Being
and his earthly representative, 2os (see
also Serpent).

Feet of Chinese women, deformation of,
287.

Fejervary Codex, 178, 187. 235, 250.

Ferlini, 427.

Fewkes, J. Walter, 130, 199, 200.

Figueredo, Padre Juan de, 104.

Finger and toe count =-20: 175, 295.290.297.

Fire, sacred. Pleiades in connection with
kindling, 53; new, kindling of, 56: fes
tival of god of, 57; earliest form under
which deity was worshipped, 58, 64, 70;
in Peru, 83; lighting of, by means of
mirror, 83; god of, associated with
sceptre having gold disk, 87; kindled
on body of human victim, 91, 95; lord
of, 127,' 128, 214: feast of in Mexico,
240; name of one of the four eras since j
the creation of the world, 253 : sym- i
bolical meaning of, 280; means of pro
ducing in Mexico and India, 318; in
connection with cult of Polaris, 319;
worship of in India, 320, 321; in Parsee j
religion, 326; in Babylonia-Assyria, j
362; ceremonial rite, in'ancient Egypt, !
442; at New Year festival in Sc'andi- I
navia, 474: (in Old World) sacred lire, !
lire-drill, lire-socket, fire altars, lord of I
lire, 494-504, 519, 520, 521: fin New !
World) sacred lire, lire-drill, lire-
socket, lire-altar, lire-drill god. 504-509;
summarv and conclusions. 544.

Five elements in China, 293,301,309; in
India and in Greece, 484, note.

Five day periods, year divided into in
Mexico, 292; in Japan, 310.

Five-dot groups, idea of, 258; on monolith
" Divine Twin," 200; on coin found in
island of Crete, 457; on the cenotaph
of king Midas, 459.

Fletcher, Alice C., 196, 511.

Flint, Karl, 195.

Flint knife, Tecpatl, in wrappings, sym
bol of earth-mother, used as sacrificial
knife. 55, 50; on head dress in 15. N. MS.,
57 : in connection with emblematic, vase,
103; sacred among the Hupa Indians of
California, 105; on sacrificial stone of
Mexico. 258; emblem of generation,
521 (see Tecpatl).

Flood and destruction myths and tradi
tions, 88, 240, 253, 270-275 (see Myths
and Traditions).

Flower, as svmbol, 101 ; four petals, two

' leaves and 'stalk, 191 ; on Tablet of the
Cross, 23(i; symbol of Centre and Four
Quarters, 278; recapitulation of mean
ing of,284; Jotusin Hindu religion, 314;
or rosette, in Assyrian symbolism, 366;
seven petalled llower on Plm-nician
tablets, 395; Egyptian word iw = (rnklt
means also " life." 413; emblem of
Middle, axial rotation and life, 413-420.

Footsteps, in circle, indicating rotation,
90, 279.

Forrer, R., 460.

Forstemann, E, 107, 109, 112.

Four Elements, in ancient religion and
symbolism: union of, in sacred rites,
97; regarded as attributes of Supreme
Divinity, 99; Mexican and /uni beliefs
and ceremonies, 99-102; symbolized by
calendar siirns, 182; svmbols of, on
Mexican Calendar Stone, 249-251; 253,
254; classification of among the Mexi
cans, /uni, and Chinese, 293: 294; Crea
tor, in Peru and Mexico, named Earth,
air, lire and water in ( )ne," 494, 510, 529.

Four Quarters, in ancient religion and
symbolism : 38, 41, 4(!: on shell gorgets,
48, 49; colors of, represented on feath
ered serpent, 70; represented in Mex
ico bv four executive ollicers, 75, 70;
ancient Yucatan divided into. 85, 86;
in Vienna Codex, 90, 91: in Borgian
Codex, 91; represented in Caracol or
Round Temple of Chichen It/a. 97: all
things divided into, for an indefinite
period, finally subdivided. 99: figured
as single sign, 124; in plan of capital
and form of government amoiiii' Incas,
136, 144: represented on carved slab
from Santa Lucia, 172; represented by
four limbs of human figure, 174; svm-
boli/ed in ancient American games
176, 178: in Fejervary Codex, 178; rep
resented by 20-day period, 179, ISO: lords
of, aniong'the Quiches, 182; colors of,
192; among /uni, 201; in pyramid
temple at Chichen It/a, 20S; idea of,
carried out by Quet/aleoatl in the Mex
ican temples. 209: ruler of, on Copan
stela1, 220; meaning of symbol as used
among the Mava, 223: on Copan swas
tika. 224: on Palenque tablets, 243: in
Mexican calendar-stone. 250; desig
nated by colors on monuments in Mex
ico. 251;' symbolized on monolith "Di
vine Twin'." 260; cult'of, in Mexico and
Peru. 204: Cortes regarded as Lord of.
200; in connection with pyramid. 273:
list of symbols connected with, 278:
expressed by pyramid. 282; in llower
symbol, 284; 'in Chinese calendar sys
tem, 285, 291 ; associated with color and
the elements, 293; with parts of the
body by Chinese, 294: with form of
quadruped by /uni, 295; in China, 298;

INDEX.

585

in Japan, 311: in India, 313; in Persia,

tion, symbolism, 22fi; summary, in

325; in Assvriaand Babylonia, 332, 333,

table of countries, 494.

337. 357: in Egypt, 30!!, 372, 386, 394, 395.

ubernatis, Angelo de, 318, 544.

415; in aneieni Ireland, the live kings

udea, 357.

others to the cardinal points. 4<i8; in

that of other ancient American civili

ancient Britain. 470; in ancient Scan

zations, 224.

dinavia, 472: table of countries in

uilleniin, Amedee. 162, 163.

which traces of cult have been found.

480-494; in religious ideas of Old and

abel. Dr., 154, 156.

New World, 517,539; summarv and con

au-ar, Staiisburv, 480, 510.

clusions. 544.

akluvt, 140, 161".

Hale. Horatio, I'.i6, 19-.

Gage. Thomas, 75, 8-'.

aliburton, H. G., 339, 469.

Gallatin. I'.u;.

ammurabi, 349.

Gama. Leon y. 96. 186. 246, 252. 256. 200.

amy, Krnest, 114, 174.

Game of ball, represented idea of per

anan-avllu, up]»er lineage in Peru. 133.

petual motion of the heaveidv bodies.

anan c'uzco = the Above, ruled by the

82; of patolli, description of, 87; tlach-

Inca, 133; division of Inca capital in

tli and patolli in Mexico, 176, 177, 178.

cluding those of upper class, 140, 164.

Garcia, 150.

athor-Isis, Egyptian goddess of whom

Garciiaso de la Vega, 132. 133.

the queen was the living image, 429-

Gaul, divided into seven provinces, 493.

437.

Gesenius. 5ls.

Hawk god, in Egyptian zodiac, 400; on

Gensler, Dr.. 395.

inscriptions in temple of Denderah,

Ghizeh Museum. 427.

401; Egyptian god Horns represented

Gibbon, 150.

with head of hawk, 402; used as image

Gilgame-h epic. 306.

of Amen Ra, 412.

Gillies. John, 487.

eaven. or "the Above," in ancient, re

Globus, 52.

ligion and symbolism: in conception

God C, Mava divinitv. 108, 111; not iden

of cosmos in ancient Mexico, in secret

tical witii Polaris. '112.

beliefs of /uui priests, associated with

God L. Mava divinitv. pis.

rising of celestial bodies, 41: male re

God M, Maya divinity. 1!;8.

gion, 42, 54.02, 65: sacrifices to, 66: Mon-

Godman, F. Ducane. 120.-

te/uma living representative of, 71, 72;

Godman and Salvin. 21'>.

in /uni ceremonies, 100; symbolized as

Gomara, 26. 39, 90. 15o.

air. light and water, 103 ; lords of, buried

Goodyear, William 11.. 314. 395, 413. 414,

in wooden elligies placed in high tow

415/418. 420, 424. 400.

ers. 107; associated with rounded form :

Goose, in Egyptian symbolism, 398; in

temples were circular, 113: on lentil

Egyptian, Sanscrit and Hindu religious

shaped altar at Copan, 114; in mush

art, 418; in the prehistoric art of

room shaped stone figures from San

Greece. Italy. Hallstatt, Gaul, Sweden;

Salvador and Guatemala, 115; peaked

name for in different lan^ua^es. 419.

mitre worn by lord of. 116; represented

Gordon. (,. P... 512.

in Mexican ollin-sign by cone, 118;

Gottfriedt. J. L., 63.

symbolized by conical stone on which

Government (see Quadruple organi/.a-

human victims were sacrificed, 118;

tion, and Social organization).

Chinese emblem of, 118; in Moki In

Great Plan, stone of, 5m;.

dian dance, 119; in ancient architecture,

Great temple of Mexico, 53. Si); recum

119-121; on clubs from Brazil and Brit-

bent stone fi u'ure on summit of , 96 ; con-

tains fortv high towers to hold effigies

Tiahuanaco, 166; in Bogota, 171 ; repre

of lords of the Above. 107. 225.

sented by human head, 174; associated

Great Turtle at Quirigua. 234. 240.

with human figure. 184,185; in Mexican

Greece, use of checker-board design,

tree symbolism, 188. 189; color associat

124: primitive government of, 445;

ed with, 192; priests represented with

Athenian culture, 454-459; summarv.

beards on sculptures at Copan and

484: Greek colonies in Egypt. 491: the

Quirigua, 231: in Mexican calendar-

symbolic use of the column. 513; stim-

stone. 249; in '-Divine Twin." 260: list

marv and conclusions, 544.

of symbols connected with, 27s. 2s2: in

Greek fret, evolution of. on the Amcri-

China, 284-290. 298. 299, 301, 306, 307, 344:
Hebrew Jehovah called "God of

and reversed tan. 121.

Heaven. "304, 323, 351: inlnda, 314: in

Grillis, W. K.. 3lo.

Persia, 325; in Assvria and Babvlonia,

Grote, 484. 485. 486. 491. 492. 527.

334. 336. 338. 33!) : in Egypt, 42:>; in Scan

Guatemala, cult of Polaris. 44; Cakchi-

dinavia, 474; table of countries in which

<l uel 1 ndia us. 79. 17! : obsidian mirror as

traces of cult have been found, 480;

oracle, S2 : ancient capital of. divided

siimmarvand conclusions, 544.

into two and four parts. 85; ancientci v-

Heaven and Karth. union of: symbolized

iiizafion in. >9: mushroom-shaped stone

bv human face. 46, 47; expressed by

figure- from. 114: -culptured slabs re

cross symbols. IS; illustrated by double

sembling image in Inca fable. 153; Xa-

fan shaped figure, 86; in connection

huatl language spoken in. 155; caste di

with Toxcatl festival, 97; in ancient

vision associated with left hand, evi

architecture, 120; in ancient symbo

.lence that Nahuatl was spoken in. 105;

lism 130: typified by shape of irri

Nahuatl names of four provinces, 172;

gating canals of Peru, 132: celebrated

stela with svmbol of open hand, Is4;

in Peru and Mexico by ceremonials

numerical division-s, social organiza-

and match-making, 146; ou Copan

586

INDEX.

stehi',221: on summits of high moun
tains. 283: in China, 28<i; by figure of
ocelot and CM i- It- combined. -Jin;; in
Babylonia, 330^ 334-340; in Egypt, 425,
429-438.

Hebrews. 304, :;o;>. 327. 350. 351, 352. 304.

Heliopolis, scat of learning ami mon
otheism in ancient Ku'ypt. 441.

Heraclitnsof Ephesus. l'.V2.

Hercules, twels-e. labors of. ."ill.

Herodotus, 3110, 3-J8, 329. :{iii. 375. :{iiii. 112,
4:57. 44-2-4 1)2.

llerrera. 77, 80. 132.

Hesiod, 453.

Hi-Witt. 453. 480 4>2. 494-50D. 517-524, 505-

Hiawatha, IDT.

Hieroglyphs, and symbols, on stone mon-
ument.s of Central America. 218-233;
Yucatan, 234-214 ; Mexico. 245-275.

Ililavi, T;4.

Ilipparchus. 4.V2.

Ilippodamus, 4»0. 510.

Historical Exposition at Madrid. -2."!.

Ho. ancient name for Merida. on ancient
map from Codex Chuma/el, 80, DO.

Hochelaga, kingdom of. 1D7; Iroquois
central capital, IDS.

Holcan. title ulven to war chiefs in Mex
ico, signifies literally the head of four,
2o<) : relates to rulership of Four Quar-
ters. -_'0it.

Holmes, \V. H., 39-48, 4!), (5t), D7, 1:51, 21:5,
235, '240.

Homer, 451, 4.r>2.

Honduras, ancient civilisation in, 89,
218; Peahody Museum Expedition, 512
see ( lopan)*.

JIo|ii, ceremonial having allinities with
the Xahuatl and Maya. 20 >.

Horizon, western, Nahuatl svmbol for —
calli, the house, 38.

Horse, sacred animal in E«rvpt, 40D.

Horse-shoe symbol, 10H, 107.' los.

Horns, Egyptian Cod identified with Po
laris. 402.

House of the Dove- at (rxmal, symbol
ism of, 1:51.

ITuaca, tribal or household -'idol"
amoiiii- the Peruvians, oriu'in of, LS8,
13(J, 140.

Iluaxtecans, (M, ]•>:>; Maya colony on
Mexican coast, Kio. 207, 208.

Huit/.ilopochtli, tradition concerning. 12:
represented as humming bird, 2*i: con
nected with Above, the male reirion,
42: the ti-aditional leader of the A /tecs,
.")7 ; tradition concerning sister of, (iO;
associated with blue color, 02: repre
sented by Monte/uma. 71: title ot,
"Heart of the Heaven,'' 72 ; compan
ion idol to that of Te/.catiipoca in in'eat
temple of Mexico, 80: monolith in
Mexico, 24."): statue of, 2r,r>.

Human arm, symbol of one of the divis
ions of state' in Mexico, 17.-).

Human bones, used as rebus, 18:1; reason
of decoration, 18).

Human breath, svmbolism of. D.10 (see
also Brcatln. '

Human face, used symbolically. 47: in
centre of ollin sign,'f>4; on sculpture at
Tiahuanaco, PiD: in Mexican calen
dar, 1C!); in Central American sculpt
ures, -J-21 ; in Copan sculpture, 222: in
Mexican calendar-stone, 248; sunnnarv.
281.

Human faces, of silver and mosaic, on

necklace of statue, 205.
Human figure, in .-acrilice regarded as
symbolic of Middle and Four Quarters,
!)1 : in mushroom shaped stone figure,
114: in Vienna Codex. 12:5; statue of
man and woman, symboli/ed duality
in Peru, l.">4 ; fnca gold image of Creator
and of the sun. 1,'].">: image of the State
in Mexico, 174; as>ociated with Four
(Quarters of the Above, 184; combined
with animal figure, svmbol of dual
State, 18."); on ' Copan" stela1, 219-227;
at Quirigua, 231, 232, 2H3, 234; in sculp-
1 ture at Palemiuc. and in Mexican
Fejervary chart, 235-240; recapitula
tion of meaning of svmbol; image of
constitution and calendar system;
calendar signs identified with, 282:
seated cross-legged, emblem of stable
Centre, 283; parts of, assigned to cardi
nal points in China. 2D4 :' in 7uni, 21)5:
siii'ni licance of, in sculpture, 295; on
stela, represented the chief and his
term ofofiice. 295; summary of its use
as symbol, 290; statue of Buddha con
veys idea of swastika, also of Centre,
315: combined with animal in Babylo
nian symbolism. 335; winged, bird-
headed human figure on Assyrian
bas relief, 300; in Eu'.vpt, 378,' 379,
4(10, 437, 43S; in the island of Crete, 457,
458.
Human finders, symbol of four officers,

175.
Human foot, symbol of lower division of

State, 175.

Human hand, symbol of supplication,
127. 201: on carved slab from Santa
Lucia, 172; ineanin»- of. 174: wooden
sceptre in form of. 174: symbol of capi
tal of State, 175: on garment of chief
tain nt rxmal; on *fcla used as name-
sign of ruler in Mexico: symbol of an
cient capital in Yucatan; sceptre in
shape of. 184; symbol of four lords of
the Above, 185; the idea of many hands
iruided by one head or central power,
180; symbol of lord or chief, 190; ex
pressed numeral live, 279: Egyptian
symbol of Centre and Four Quarters,
3! 14.

Human head, on Tablet of the Cross,
230: as corn cobs on mai/e plant. 237;
in serpents' jaws on calendar stone,
257: portraits or effigies of the dead,
270: used as symbol of Centre, 279; on
winged bull. 337.

Human heart, symbol employed by
Mexicans. Mayas. Quiches, and Txen-
dals. 71; extracted from human victim
of: sacrifice. 91; embleir of supplica
tion. 127: in sacrifice. 173,290: between
4 squares, symbol for chieftain, etc.,
I'.)!): on monolith "Divine Twin," 261;
of gold on necklace of idol. 205.
Human eye used as star symbol, 279 (see

Eye symbol).
Human mouth and teeth, symbolized

earth or Below. 2S1.

Human nose, mystic union of two
streams of breath, consecrated by
wearing symbolical nose ornament,
282.

Human sacrifice (see Sacrifice).
Human skull, artificial deformation of.
143.

INDEX.

587

Human stomach, in China symbol of
Centre; death by disemboweling prac
tised. -I'M.

Human thumb, symbol of central ruler.
175.

IIumhoMt. 297. 301. :;i'.i.

lliiinhol.lt Tablet. 5n6.

1 1 umis-katshina. /uni dance, tau symbol
u-ed in, lilt.

Hunter. Annie, 222.

llupa Indians. HC,.

llurin-ayllo. lower lineage in Peru. 133.

Hurin Cu/co = the Below. 133: division
of the Inca capital including the lower
class. 141. H;4.

Huron Indians. 19C-199. 493.

Huxley, 526. 534.

Hwang-te. Chinese emperor who intro
duced calendar sy-tem, 29S. 301.

Idols, represented attributes of divine
power, etc., 8; tribal and household,
13S. 139. 140.

Ik, .Maya glyph. 225.

Illinois, cult of Polaris indicated by em
blems on shell.-oriret. -44.

Tinix. Maya glyph, lus.

Incas of "Peru. 133: cult of. 134: Great
Temple of. 135; gold images of Creator
and of the sun, 135. 13K ; form of gov
ernment, based on Centre and Four
Quarters. 136; ancestor worship, 137;
origin of. 151: use of tree symbolism.
186; record of male and female ances
try. 186; gold associated -with male ele
ment, silver witli female. 1*7: a^soci-
ated with golden etligy of sun. 264; ad
vent into Peru. 539: summary and con-
ciu~ions. 540 ,>eealso Peru .

India, divisions of year, 291; astronomi
cal svstem. 8iiO; swastika abounds in,
812: Mithra. Hindu irod of the wheel,
313; Brahmans. Buddhists. 314: mar
riage custom, 81'i; numerical divisions.
317: native maps of, 3IS; ceremonial
mode of producing lire, 3!8; Middle,
centrifugal power; quadruple organi
zation, etc. .320; tree worship. 3-21 : wor-
ship of Polaris. " the pivot of the plan
ets," 448. ix>t<-: summary. 480; Puhago-
ras derived his philosophy from. 4>'4;
sacred lire, tire drill. lire altar, 4!)4; mar
riage. 4HS; the Magha- and Nahu-has
comi>ared with the Mayas <>t Yucatan
and the Nahua> of Mexico. ,->0;i; the
idea of live elements. .V2»i; activi- inter
course with seafarers. 541 : cvclical sys
tem of. assigned to same period 'as
C'onstantine's numerical -clieme and
the calendrical schemes of the Mayas
and Mexicans. ~>4'2: -uminary and con
clusions. f>44.

Indra. 31'2.

Initial scroll, in Central American in
scriptions. -j-21, -2:!3.

Internationales Archiv liir Kthno-
grapliie. 7'.'.

Ireland, numerical divisions: quadruple
or-ani/.ation:dual ruler: Middle: Pour

court'. 4tis-47ii; >uiiimary. in table of
countrie>. 4i'3.

Iroquois, social organization, 100: wam
pum belts. I'.i7; numerical divi:-ions.
I'.is; linguistic allinities with Mayas,
I'.KS. H*9.

Irrigation, in ancient Peru. 146.

Ishtar. cult of, 342-350; ring or circle,
symbol of. 3.M), 3«i>: " axis of the
heavens." female Polaris, 503.

Isis. Egyptian goddess worshipped un
der form of cow, 406; in sculpture and
symbolism. 421-434; called daughter of
the sun, 44(i. 441.

Isokrates, 4H2.

Israelites. 34.~>: idea of central power:
star-cult developing into monotheism.
352, 358. 355.

Itza, tribe who occupied Chichen-Itza.
20t>.

Ixion's wheel. 453.

Ixkun. 210. 215, 244; bas-relief at, 25!'.

Ixtlilxochitl, 33. W, 84, I«i3, '255.

Ixamal, ruins ot, 214, '217.

I/ calli, Mexican 20 day period. 240: fes
tival of '• renovation'," 241.

l/.taccihuatl. giant volcano, 275.

Jade,Nahuatl word for, c.lialchiuitl, 34.81 ;
symbol of: emblem of water goddess,
91: placed with dead of upper class in
Mexico, 195: jade celts from Nicaragua,
19i i; ancient name for pyramid of Cho-
lula. '• the monument or precious jade
stone of the Toltecs, etc.," 269; Chinese
word for. signiticance of. 563. note.

Jau'iiar, tigure of, represented four lords
of the Below, 184, 185: skeleton of, in
Mound 4 at Copan. 233; compared with
ocelot. 233; on Cross tablets at Palen-
que, 239 see Ocelot. Puma, Quad
ruped and Animal form).

Janus, double-faced, probably symbol of
double state in Koine, 463.

Japan, junks, 309; organization founded
on plan derived from Corea ; "in-ear
Centre of the Earth;" tradition about
North Pole: compared with China, 310;
Buddhism, 311; four divisions of pop
ulation, with Emperor at head: gov
erned by two rulers, celestial and ter
restrial,' 311 ; swastika: Shinto religion,
811: quadruple' organization, 311, 312;
summary. 483.

Jastrow. Morris, 327-344. 348, 350, 354, 357,
361-867.

Jeiis-.-n. 327.

Jerusalem, temples to Baal and altar to
A start;-. 350-352; destruction of, 530.

Jesup expedition to the North Pacific
534.

Jones. Sir William, 300.

Jovce. 570.

Justinian. 530.

Kaan, Maya word for cord, associated

with caan, Heaven. 1 12.
Kaka or Akaka-kwe. mythic dance

drama people, among the Zufii, 2u4.
Kan = numeral four, 110; Maya word

for serpent, 112: Nahuall word for ser
pent. Is'.i; Chine-e word for mountain.

aNo for province or ruler. 287.
Kan-asta (Iroquois; frame poles of the

council house. 1;*7.
Kanasta -tsi-koma Iroquois' '-the irreat

framework;1' name of Iroquois league,

197.
Katun, period of twenty years marked

bv sculptured stone. 218. 219, 220. 221.
Kirigsborough, 11. 57, fi2. 78. 240, 246.
Kin Maya = sun. 217.
Kin ich ahua, one title of Mava supreme

divinity, 36.
Kirchei-,'485.

588

INDEX.

Kniirht, 470.

Kukulcau, Maya title tor Mexican god
c^uet/alcoatl,' OS; meaning of name =
di\ iiK- serpent, tjs, GO; represented by
fcathered serpent in Yucatan ami Mex
ico, (ill; tradition concerning, (!!); ruler
ol' Chichen-It/.a. Gl»; assumed otlice< of
four rulers. ii!l; estahlislied roiinectioii
between ( 'hiclien -It/a and Mexico, 03:
eoniliai-ed with culture hero of Bogota,

coatl, 2()>;; actual person, Maya high
priest. Mexican culture hero, 2o7 :
brought colony from Yucatan to Mex •
ico. 2;iS; name signilied " divine four.''
•JOS; title expressed by serpent on Co-
pan stela1, 220. 223: 'represented by
nionolith " Divine Twin," 202.

Kulkuii. mountain in China, called king
of mountain-, summit of the earth, etc.,
287.

Kushites, myth regarding origin of lii'e.
etc.. 4!).").

Kwakiutl Indians, social organi/ation
and secret societies. 147; "compared
with Mava, .Mexican and Peruvian.

Lacediemon, ancient philosophy of. 4s7-

Lacouperie, T. de, 300. 302.

Land, conventional symbol of, 123.

Landa, Fra Diego de, 35, GO. 80. 1!»1, 19-2,
2<iG-22n, 242. 281.

Language, differed in male and female
communities, 193; influence on ancient
American s\ mbolism. 2-4 -see Linguis
tic- i.

Laouts/e, founder of Taouism, 208,5:54.

Laplace, 31'.i.

Las Casas. 07.

Layard, 300.

Lea, Chinese word for Below. US.

Left-hand: left-handed was attribute of
.Mexican god. 12; consecration of. in
Mexico and Peru, Ki;}, ]04: honorific,
title, 105; on Copan altar, 22S.

Legge, 28(5, 2^9, 200. 202, 206, 298. 200.

Lenormant, 50(5.

Leon, Cie/.a de, 1.30, 150.

Le rionii-eon A., 93, 05, 184. 214.

Lepsius, 379, 4GO.

Levier, Kmile, 477. 478.

Li foot the Indians /same as Ilispano-
Mexican MS.. Biblioteca, Na/ionale
MS., or 1',. X. MS.\

Linguistics, traces of words associated
with archaic set of ideas in Old and
New World. 5:51; comparative tables
of words Appendix [,549; and Appen
dix Ill,5r,3.

Lion, sacred symbol in Kgypt. 40S.

Li/.ard. skin of. in connection with hu
man sacrifice, and with goddess of
earth and underworld. 01, 90. OS.

Li/ana. 210.

Lloque Ynpanqui. third Inca. 1:5:5.

Lockver, Norman. 13. 14. 20, 1(52. 252, 376,
377,' 381, 382. 3S4, 3S5, 3*0, 400.

Lorenzana. (iS.

Lorillard City (see Menche: . 210; sculpt
ure and art oi'. 234.

Lotus. a< symbol in Lu'vpt and India.
314, 320. 379, 413.

Loubat, Due de, 230. 50 L

Luna, Don Jose, 50.

Lunar year, 254.

Lunar periods, 256.

Lutiar calendar in Mexico, 297; in China

Luschan, Felix von, 332, 350. 357.
' Lysicrates. choragic monument of, 127.
I Lycnrgus, 457, 4b7.

Magliadas of India, 407.

Maghas of India coui|>ared with Mayas,
50.1; a Finnic, race, 519.

Maghi of Persia, 407.

Magnus, P.. 477, 478.

Ma baity, J. P., 417.

Mai/.e, 'ceremonial, 78; symbolof goddess
of Earth, 91, 08: used in ceremonial
offerings by California!! Indians, 105;
on earth symbol in codices, 109, 117, 123;
on sculptures at Palenque and Copan,
237, 230, 24:!; in Mexican New Year fes
tivals, 241; cultivation of. in very earlv
times. 272, 275; legacy of Corn Maiden's
and Daughters of Earth, 270; as vear
symbol. 201.

Ma'ler. Teobert, 1S4. 212, 21:5, 214.
j Maltaya bas-relief. 350. 300.

Manco. Capac. 133; founder of Cu/co.
15C, Kil, 18(i.

Muiicli^, n tribe of Menche and Palen
que, 235.

Mandaite pole star worship, 321 322 550
| March, II. Colley, 23,24.
j Marcianus, 530.

j Market stone of the City of Mexico. 245
(see Mexican Calendar Stone).

Marinas, 452.

Maritime intercourse between old and
New World, interrupted for manv cen
turies by interregnum of Polaris, 531:
equatorial currents favoring migra
tions to New World. 524, 525; evidence
of (Jneco-Kgyptian contact with Mex
ico, 538 (see Pre-Columbian contact).

Markham. Clements 15., 132, 136, 142, 152,
100, 108, 510.

Marriage, in Mexico, sacred rites in con
nection with. 102; laws governing, 17(>;
among the Hindu, 31G; on New Year's
day in Babylonia and Assyria. 331.340;
in ancient Egypt, 441; festivals, in In
dia and in Mexico connected with wor
ship of Pleiades, 408 (see Heaven and
Earth, union of).

Marroquin. SO.

Maspero. 437, 5ls.

Master builders, ah-men, Maya name
for: aman-teca. Mexican nam'e for. 234:
kinship between those of Central
America and Mexico, and the trained
builders of cosmical structures in the
Old World, 517, 520. 532. 533.

Mamislay. Alfred P., 120. 121. 170,172,215,
210. 2IS. 219. 221. 222. 223, 227, 220, 230,
233, 234. 235, 230. 230, 5! 14.

Mayapan, capital of confederacy of
Mayas, GO: ancient capital of Yucatan,
80, llo. another name for, 200; Ichpa.
another name for, 200; ancient chroni
cles, 209, 211 ; Cocomes, people of, 211-
210.

Mayer's Manual, 285.

Ma/ahuas or deer people, of (Juatemala,
105.

McGee. W J, KM.

Mecca, "the mother of cities;" the grave
of Mot her Eve, 323.

Mcdhurst, W. II. ,285, 280.

Melchites, 530.

Memorial stones, in CopaUj 219.

INDEX.

589

Men, name of dog in M;iy;i calendar;
means master-builder, artisan, etc..
234.

Menche, ancient ruins of. 215: •• I.orillard
Citv.'' 234: ancient civilization <>f, 244.

Mendieta, 44, 67. 7*;.

Florida, modem capital of Yucatan. (IS:
ancient name. " Flo," So; figured in an
cient map, 86.

Mesopotamia, pole-star worship, 321, 557:
quadruple organization, stable Centre.
322: seat of various empires, 334.

Mexican Calendar Stone (see Calendar
stone of Mexico" .

Mexican Calendar system (see Calendar
S v>tems .

Mexican MSS. unpublished, 90.

Mexican .Sacrificial Stone (see Sacrificial
stone).

Mexico, number of deities: same god un
der several names. 7; idols. S; worship
of supreme Creator. S: calendar-swas
tika. !): calendar-stone. P2. ]:',. 95. 245-
258,28u; system of government, origin
of. 15: game, symbolizing axial rota
tion. -24, 25: calendar system. 2.'). 35. 53.
H '0, 145, 176, 179, 1S-2, 221. 245. 2S2, 297,
52S. 529, 530; Great Temple of. 58. s:5. !>0.
W, 107.225, 507: City of. divided into
four quarters, 83; built on dual island
in dual lake, 84; ancient map of, SS; an
cient capital of,divided into two halves.
89; recumbent stone figures bearing
circular vessel, 9:5: tribal and house-
bold "idols," origin of, '139: native
arms of, 157: caste division associated
with left hand, 165; origin of human
sacrifice, 173; numerical divi-ion-, so
cial organization, symbolism, etc..
identical with Peru, "Copan, Guate
mala. Yucatan, Zuni, etc.. 226: map of,
to be published, 230, 231; compared
with other ancient cultures of Amer
ica, 235-244; sun cult and moon cult ex
isting at same time, 264; dual govern
ment" at time of Conquest, 266: cradle
of American civilizations, 276; names '
of symbols translated from Maya, 278; |
swastika symbol found associated i
with calendar-signs, 2Sn; spider's web j
as symbol of numerical divisions, 293; I
summary, in table of countries, 494: j
the sacred and tribal tree, 499: lighting
the sacred lire, 504; symbols and plan
of government compared to those of
Old World, 506-524: numerical divi
sions on which the cosmical scheme
was based, 528: date when calendar
was instituted, 530: ruder forms of
culture, 531: civilization at time of
Conquest indicative of contact with
old World, 538: period of warfare,
pestilence, etc., 539; resemblance be
tween name of capital (Temistitan),
and of Greek philosopher, Themis- j
tins, .543: summary and conclusions, !
546.

Meyer's Lexikon, 28S.

Micmac Indians, myths about Ursa Ma- i
jor, 510.

Mictlampa, Nahuatl name for the North,

Mictlan, land of the dead, 40, 245.
Mictlantecuhtli, identical with Tezcatli- j

poca,8; lord of the North, 9, 11 ; symbols ;

of, 37, 42, 44, 47, 57, 185, 1S6, 249,260, 295.
Midas, king of Phrygia, 459.
Migration, from the north, to South ;

r. M. PAPERS i 05

America. 224 ; caused by desire to find
stable centre of the earth, 275; in
Mexico and Central America in twelfth
century, 539 (see Migration myths;.
Migration myths and traditions: in con
nection with cult of Polaris, 43; Peru
vian, Mayan, Mexican, 149, 150,151 ; mo
tive of.explained by Zuni, 201,202; Ku-
kulcan driven out of Chichen Itza and
journeyed to Mexico, 206; three broth
ers came from the West and settled in
Chichen It/a, 207; into Yucatan from
the South, 210, 211; the Mayas came
from Tollanin Zu-iva,217; the Mexican
culture hero came from the East. " the
ancient red land," 525, 528-530 ^see
Myth.r- and Traditions).
Mikado, 311.

Mill-stone, as svmbol. 494-509.
Milne, -I. G.,425.
Minotaiirus, ruler of island of Crete,

457.

Mirror, of obsidian, 10; used as oracle
among the Cakchiquel Indian of Gua
temala, 80; in sacred edifices; in great
temple of Mexico; eyes of image of
Tezcatlipnca, so ; symbol of Tezcatli-
poca; oracle of judgment in Mexico
and Guatemala; aid to astronomical
observations, 82; of obsidian, symbol
of star-cult: of polished pyrites! sym
bol of sun-cult, S3; in connection with
symbolical tree and serpent, 110; bowl
of water, preceded use of, 225: in Shin
to symbolism. 311 ; in Etrypt, 409.
Mississippi valley, cult "of Polaris, 44;
earth-work builders, 50; early peoples
of, in contact with Mayas, 112; names
of cities and tribes showing Maya in
fluence, art resembling that of Mayas,
199.
Missouri, cult of Polaris indicated by

emblems on shell-gorget, 44.
Mit (Egyptian) = death, or the dead, 381.
Mithra, Aryan god of the wheel, 313.
Mitimaes, Peruvian colonists, 149.
Mitla, 244; recent excavations at, 513.
Moabites, 351.
Mohammedans, 305.
Mol, glyph on Copan altar, 227.
Molina's dictionary, 8, 93, 132, 138. 139,
141, 145, 146, 147, 152, 154, 158, 165, 168, 18(5,
189, 192, 553.
Monarquia Indiana, 95.
Mongolia, Buddhists of, 315.
Monkev = < )zomatli, Mexican dav-sign,

112.

Monophysite doctrine of Eutyches, 530.
Montagua river, 215, 230.
Montesinos, 146, 150.

Montezuma, 34, 43, 54, 60, 61, 67-75,83, 106,
125, 150, 183, 208, 231, 245, 265, 266, 540,
547.

Moon, associated with cult of night,
Earth Mother, the Below, 104; in Peru
vian cult of the Below, 134, 135, 148; in
Bogota, 171; astronomical attainments
of priests of, 180; in Mexican calendar
stone, 250; image in silver on pyramid
at Teotihuacan, 264, 267; in China, 286,
287. 292: lunar calendar, 297: in re
ligion of Persia, 325; in Babylonia and
Assvria, 332,344, 347; in Egypt, 389,424,
438. *

Moqui Indians, tau symbol used bv, 119.
Morien, 471.

Morse. Edward T.. 473, 478.
Mortillet, Gabriel de, 19.

590

INDEX.

Mortuary customs in Mexico, placing
jade with dead of upper class, and
texaxoctli with dead of lower class,
195; carried northward from the south
196; body of Mexican ruler covered
with raiment of four principal gods,
209.

Moslems, 324.

Motowori, 575.

Motul, dictionary of, 112.

Mound, symbol of Earth, 110; in sym
bolic carving from Brazil or Guiana,
2-24.

Mound-builders (see " Earth-work Build
ers ").

Mountain, sacred (see "Pyramid or
Mountain ").

Mueller, I wan, 454.

Miiller, Max, 45'J, 4S4, 564.

Mulue, Maya division of 4 years assigned
to the north, 218.

Mummy, in Egyptian symbolism, 380,
394, 403, 404, 410.

Museum s : A merican, of New York, -234 ;
Berlin, 380, 417, 423, 424, 426, 427,457, 460,
507; Bonn, 464; British, 151, 166, 234,
353, 355-357, 366, 457, -159; Dresden, 129,
155; Ghi/er, 427: National, Mexico, 9,
13, 86, 93, 98. 256, 200; National, Washing
ton. 19, 51; New Haven, 507; Peabody,
34, 48, 61. 153, nut<; 195, 218, note, 512;
South Kensington, 216, 227.234, 239, 313;
Stockholm, 48 '; Trocadero, 104, 174, note.

Mushroom-shaped stone ligures, from
San Salvador and Guatemala, 114; rep
resent native idea of Above and Be
low with central ruler of both, 114; in
dicate belief in one supreme ruler,
115.

Mussulman, 324.

Muyscas of Bogota, 171.

Myths and traditions: Creation myths
(see separate heading), 54, 55, 56/105,
13S, 2(10, 223, 313-318, 334, 340, 353, 495;
liood and destruction myths (see sep
arate heading), 88, 240, 253, 270-275; mi-
f/ratitm myths (see separate heading),

43, 149, 150', 201, 202, 206, 207, 210, 211-217,
525-530; star c/i/t myths,— Mexican, 11,
12,25, 26; American Indian, 511, note:
Turanian, 517, 518; Mexican, life after
death and relative position of man and
woman, 38, 39; Tezcatlipoca cast down
from Heaven and arose as an ocelot,

44, 45; Quilaztli, " woman serpent," 60-
62; Mni/a, culture hero, Kukulcan, 69;
suggesting worship of Polaris, 159; re
lating to 7-day period among the Cak-
chiquel Indians of Guatemala, 182;
I'eritrian, concerning the Inca Yupan-
qui who introduced the worship of the
Creator, 152, 153; relating to ancestors
of Manco Capac and the "royal eagle,"
156; concerning contest between ser
pent and eagle, compared with similar
Mexican tradition, 159; Japanese, con
cerning birthplace of Japanese race,
310; Arabian. Moslem tradition about
Heavenly and earthly Kaaba, 324; as
tronomical, 465; Assyrian, relating to
planet Venus and god I shfar,344 ; Greek,
about fire-drill, 496, and Ixion, 500;
Rig }'eda, origin of fire, 521.

Nahr-el-Kelb, bas-reliefs at, 357; Esar-

haddon stela, 359.
Nahuas of Mexico compared with Nahu-

shas of India, 509, 519.

Nahui-ollin, Mexican symbol, " four
movements," 170; represents four
movements of constellations, 250; sum
mary of the four-fold divisions of
which it was a symbol, 251; commemo
rated the four epochs of the world's
history, 253; common to the various
ancient peoples of America, 256, note
(see also Ollin).

Nakhunte, king of Susiana, 299.

Naming of children in Mexico and Yuca
tan, 242.

Navel, name of cosmical centre where hu
man victims were annually sacrificed
by Mexican priests =" Navel of the
Earth," 04; Cuzco called " Navel of the
Earth, "133: symbol in ancient Ameri
can art, 296; in Arabia, 323; in India,
"Navel of the heaven," 520; "Navel of
the world," 521.

Navigation, primitive crafts and charts,
Ceylon and Karashee, 159, 160; Peru
vian fishing boats of seal skin; Quetzal-
coatl's twin raft of serpent or seal skin ;
illustrations in native codices and
sculptures, 160 (see also Boat and Mar
itime intercourse).

Nebuchadnezzar, 3(55.

Necklace of hearts and hands, on Mexi
can idol, indicative of supplication,
128.

Neo-platonism, 527.

Nepantla, the zenith, 38.

Nest, in Egyptian symbolism, 398.

Nestorian Tablet, 304.

New Year's Day, in ancient Mexico and
Central America, 240-244: in China,
292; in Mesopotamia, 321, 557; in Baby
lonia and Assyria, 331, 346; in ancient
Egypt, 419, 425-437; in Scandinavia, 473.

Nezahual-coyotl, ruler of Texcoco who
erected temple to " Unknown God,"
33, 163; title, Ome Tochtli = 2 rabbit,
180.

Nicaragua, star-symbol on pottery from,
50; ancient occupation by Nahuatl-
speaking race, 158; jade celts from,
195.

Niebuhr, 514.

Night, priest of, lord of, 82; sons of, 83;
Egyptian symbol of, a star suspended
by thread, 387.

Nimroud bas-reliefs, 366.

Nirvana, in Hindu religion, 315.

Nordenskjold, Baron Gustav, 119, 230,
note.

Norsemen, Eddas, symbolism, celestial
tree, 502, 503.

North, symbols of, 10; sign of, 35; un
derworld, 39; in Cosmos, associated
with Tecpatl = flint, red, lire, warmth,
42; symbol of, 56, 57; color of, red; 57;
lord of, 57; female region, 64; symbol
of, in Mexican calendar-stone* 250;
region of the dead, 267 ; Maya name and
symbol of, 278; Buddha associated with,
316; veneration of, in India, 317: in
Egyptian pyramid symbolism, 381;
Babylonian word = akkad, 400.

Nose, grotesque, on sculptures at Copau,
Quirigua and Palenque, 240.

Nose ornament, religious idea associated
with, 103.

Nott and Gliddon, races of men recog
nized by ancient Egyptians, 373.

Numbers," sacred, 29, 30 (see Numerical
divisions).

Numerical divisions, in sociological and

INDEX.

591

calendrieal systems: in Mexico and
Central America, 29, 62; in Peru, 144,
147, 167; in (Guatemala, 164, 171. 179; rep
resented by human figure, 174, 175; in
Mexican government, 179, 181; carried
northward from the south, 196; in Hu
ron Confederacy, 198; among the Zufii,
201; in Yucatan* 209, 218, 223; at Chich-
en It/a, 212, 213; in Copan, 221, 22*1, 228,
229; in symbolic carving from South
America, 224; in Qulrigun, 232, 2:53; in
Mexican Calendar Stone, 218, 256; on
monolith "Divine Twin, "261 ; in China,
286,292. 302; Mexican compared with
Chinese, 297; in Japan. 310; in India,
313, 32o; in Persia, 325 ; in Assyria, 328,
34S, 358, 360; in Egypt. 363-376; in
cyclical systems of Egyptians, Hindus,
Chinese, Mexicans, Mayas and Greeks,
450; in ancient Home, 464; and Greece,
484; in ancient Ireland, 468-470; Brit
ain. 470; Wales. 471; Scandinavia, 471,
472; table of countries in which used,
48n-4'.»4: Plato's '• divine polities " com
pared with scheme of organization in
Mexico and Peru, 509; summary, as
>hown in Yucatan and Mexico.' 528;
chief ruler called " Four in One," 529;
apparent survival in early Christian
religion, 53J-53,*: in Plato's and Inca's
scheme of state, 539; in Constantino's
plan, and in Maya and Mexican cal
endars, 542, 543; analogies and diverg
ences. American divisions airree with
Greek but differ from Chinese. 54(5.

Nutt, David. 451.

Nuttall, /elia. work on the Atlatl, 34; on
the Mexican Calendar system, 7, 53,
244-247.

Obsidian mirror 'see " Mirror").

Ocelot, Texcatlipoca took shape of, 8; in
Mexican mythical drama, 12; of noc
turnal sky. 35; in Mexican codices, 44;
at Tiahuanaco,166; title of one division
of Mexican warriors, 167; man with
beast (ocelot or jaguar,) symbol of dual
State in Yucatan, 185; title of minor
rulers in Yucatan, 185; man-ocelot and
•nan-bird, represented rulers of two
divisions of state in Mexico, 185; or
tiyer. warrior-caste of Mexico, 212;
skin of, worn by high-priest in Copan
and Quirigua, 231, 233: totem of the
Firepeoplein Mexico, 254; symbolized
cult of Earth, as opposed to bird,
symbol of cult of Heaven, 282; symbol
of State in ancient America, 295, 296
(see also Jaguar, Puma and Quadru
ped).

Ocna, a Maya festival, 242.

Octli, name of native wine, 78; pulque,
]ul; earth-wine, indicated by figure of
rabbit, 103.

Octli-gods, agents of the Cihuacoatl, 78;
rain gods, 96; rain-priests, 101; priests
of the earth, emblem of=vase filled with
rain or earth-wine, 107; monkey inti-
matelv connected with, 112.

Odin, Scandinavian king and deity, 471 ;
Norse " ruler of Heaven," 473.

Ohio valley, ancient earth-work builders
in contact with ancient Mexicans, 50;
art resembles Maya, 199; swastika
symbol associated with serpent sym
bol, 280.

Ojibway Indians. 511, note.

Oldenburg, 484.

Old World, fire-drill, fire altar, sacred
fire, oil press, millstone, axial rotation,
etc., 494-504; civilizations compared
with New World, 504-509, 525; summary
and conclusions. 544.

Oliva, Padre Anello, 132, 150, 154.156, 157,
164.

Oliver, G., 484, 485.

Ollin, in Calendar-stone, 12, 13, 14, 15, 54
(see also Nahuiollin).

Olmos, Friar Andreas de, 54, 189, 190,
195.

Olympic Games, marked cvcle or period,
485.

Omacatl, associated with water, 81.

Omaha Indians, measured time by Ursa
Major, 511. note.

Ome Tochtli Ixtlilxochitl, 163.

Ondegardo, Polo de, 132, 141, 148.

O'Neil, 44S, 449, 451, 468, 469, 471, 472, 547,
568. 570, 572, 574.

Oriental Congress, 544.

Orientation, 42; of Copan and Quirigua
the same, 230; of temples at Palenque,
235; diagonal, in Egypt and Central
America, 372. note: Egyptian pyramids
faced the north, and the pole-star, 382;
temples in Lower Egypt faced to the
North; in Upper Egypt to the South,
383.

Origin of American civilizations, 543;
summary and conclusions, 544.

Orizaba, giant volcano, 275: ancient
name, Citlal-tepetl = Star Mountain,
275. note.

Ozomatli, monkey; Mexican day-sign, 112.

Pacha- Yachachi, Inca name for Creator,
135.

Painting, in connection with symbolism,
114; of body and face in Peru, Mexico
and Yucatan, 192. 193 (see Color).

Palenque, Palace House with tan-shaped
recesses, 121, note; character of stela,1,
215; study of monuments, 234-239: same
cult as Quirigua and Copan, 240; tab
lets, tribal registers, 243; tablet, in
"Temple of the Sun," likened to Mexi
can Sacrificial stone! 259.

Palestine, cult of Astarte and Baal, and
monotheism of the Israelites, 345.

Pan, feast of, 442.

Pantheon. 515.

Panuco. Mava colony established at,
125, 207, 208,' note.

Papa, name of Mexican Priest, 39.

Papakhu. name of inner sanctuary of
Babvlonian and Assyrian temple* 330,
331.'

Papalotl, butterfly, 39.

Parry, Francis, 104.

Pars'ee religion, worship of fire as out
come of pole-star worship, 326.

Parturition, symbolized by shell, 95; by
snail, 111.

Path of the Dead, ancient road lead
ing to Pyramid of the Moon, 267.

Patolli, native Mexican game, 87; sym
bolized social organization, 176, 177.

Paz Solden, 150.

Peabody Museum, 34, 48, 61, 153, note,
195.

Peabody Museum Honduras Expedition,
218, note, 512.

Pedregal de San Augustin, ancient lava-
field in City of Mexico, 271.

Peking, contains temple to North Star
God, 284 (see China and Polaris).

592

INDEX.

Pcnaliel. Amonio, 202.

Perex, 109.

Perrot and Chipie/, 4-1.

Perry, John, 547.

Persia, ancient religion of ; swastika ;
seven divisions of Cosmo.-, four-fold
rule, 325, 484.

IVru. worship of Pleiades, 5:5; sacred
lire, 83: use of checkerboard design,
l-.M: light and dark colors u-ed to des
ignate the Above and Below, 130; irri
gating canals in symbolic form, 132,
146; outline of civili/.ation, 132 ; stone
monument typifying duality, l:j4:
knowledge of Creator, 1:55: form of
trovernment. 136, 137;. tribal and house
hold "idols, "138, l.'J'.i, 140; four rulers,
141 ; classification of people, 142: "white
virgin^," title given to upper class mai
dens: "black virgins," lower class;
caste; deformation of skulls, 143: cere-
monv for driving out sickness, 144;
Above, Below, Centre and Four Quar
ters, 144; ceremony illustrating- rota-
lion. I4:>; religious "festivals, 140, 147;
civili/.ation from the north. 150; pre
historic ruins, 151, 156; Inca fable, 152;
compared with symbolism of sculp
tured slal»s in Guatemala, 153, 154, 155,
150; linguistic atlinilies between Que-
chua and Maya and Nahuatl, 15S, 15'.);
Polaris: navigation, 159, loo; worshi]) of
Creator" (Polaris) superseded sun and
moon cults, 101, 164; caste division asso
ciated with left hand. li!5; ruins of
Tiahuanaco, 165-109; symbols compared
with those of .Mexico and Central
America, 170; summary, 494: scheme
of government compared with Plato's
"divine polities, 50(.t, 531 »; summary and
conclusions, 546.

Petrie, Flinders, 375, 380, 404,425, 439, 461,
483,491.

Phcidon of Corinth, 48(5, note.

Pherecydes, the Phoenician teacher of
Pvthagoras, 520.

Phiiohuis, 485, 527.

Plnenicians, cult of Astarte, 345; a north
ern race, called Turanians, 517; navi
gators, 519; worshipped serpent, lire-
drill and the Pleiades; called the " red
men," 521: tradition indicates their mi
gration to the New World, 524. 525, 528-
535; evidence of their influence, 538-
541; allied to Semitic race, 540, note,
541, 513; summary and conclusions,
546.

ig. sacred animal in Egypt. 409.
igmy races, traditions of, 339.
iilar, worship of (see Column),
illi. Mexican title, 74; meaning "lin
gers," title of minor lords. 282.
ilquixtia, a Mexican festival, 240.
inches, Mr., 357.

lato, 346, 444-451, 407, 486-490, 509, 527,
529, 539, 546.

Plato's "Divine Polities," identical with
scheme of government in ancient Mex
ico and Peru, 509, 539.

Pleiades, study of. by primitive peoples,
52; on Society Islands, 52; in Mexico,
53; in southern America, 53, 54; on
Mexican Calendar-stone, 252; in Chi
nese calendar, 296; in Babylonia and
Assyria, 338 (see Polaris, lvrsa Major
and* Ursa Minor) ; worshi]) of. in India
and Mexico; in connection with New
Year and marriage festivals, 498.

Plotinus, 527.

Plutarch. 441. 452. 488.

Polar constellations, chart of, 16.

Polar regions, both hemisphere^ origi
nally peopled from, 531.

Polaris, the author's observation of, 7;
primitive man's study of, 14, 15: Dra-
conis, as pole-star: apparent immova
bility ; means of determining direction ;
supernatural power, 21: worshi]) of;
centre of axial energy, 22; Mexican
Calendar system suggested bv. 25: nu
merical value of, 30, 31 : centre of cosmic

. system, 40, 41 ; changes in relative po
sitions of. 42; ceased to be brilliant and
immovable about 500 B.C. to 1200 A. 1).,
43; cult of; migrations from south to
north, 43: spread of cult in Mexico,
Yucatan. Honduras, Guatemala. Peru;
also, in Mississippi valley, as indicated
by carvings on shell gorgets, 44 ;symbols
of, analogous to cross and star symbols
on shell gorgets from Tennessee, 4S, 49,
50; suggestions of cult among the Es
kimo, 50; represented by star symbols
and swastika on pottery from Arizona
and Nicaragua, 50; in connection with
cult of Earth and Night, 54; represent
ed by Montezuma on his throne, 72: not
identical with God C, 112; as centre of
rotation in /nni emblem. 129: as a guide
in navigation between Guatemala, Nic
aragua and Peru, 159; between Ceylon
and Karachee, 159, 100; cult superseded
sun and moon cults in Peru, 101; in
visible at Cux.co; Inca worship of the
invisible Creator, 161 ; Voal-tecuhtli,
Mexican lord of the Night; title of Po
laris, 181 ; producer of life and regulator
of the universe; tecpatl( Hint knife) sym
bol of, 183; in connection with free
symbolism; title, "Heart of Heaven,"
189; among the Zuni, 202; at Copan,
222,224; reflected in bowl of water =
Creator, 225: in Shakespeare, 247: rep
resented central face in Mexican cal
endar stone, 250; Calendar stone based
on observation of, 257, not?; in connec
tion with pyramid, 273, 274: in connec
tion with swastika symbol, 276: Maya
name, Ek-chuah, patron divinity of
travellers and traders, 278; North Star
God, temple to, in Pekin; Chinese
name =Teen-hwang-ta-tee, literally
the great imperial ruler of Heaven.
284-287, 291, 295; in work of Confucius,
298; in Chinese Taouism, 301, 302; He
brew Jehovah, having same title, ''God
of Heaven," 304; in India, 316, 318, 319;
in Mesopotamia, 321; in Arabia, 324;
linguistic aflinity between name of Po
laris, and word for capital and for
north, in Babylonia, 325; Plxcnician
name = the serpent, 325; in Persia, 326;
in Babylonia, "lord or king, "Great
Mountain," 329; cult of , in Assyria «nd
Babylonia, 332-339; among the Israel
ites,* 352: in Babylonia, highest form
developed into monotheism, and lowest
form into cult of Ishtar and Bel, 353;
represented in Babylonian temples by
a fire in centre of square altar. 362,
363; Euphratean star-worshippers, 364;
high development of cult in Egypt.
368, 376-382; Egyptian mummy, image
of, 386; Egyptian names for, 398, 401-
403; in Egyptian religion and symbol
ism, 403/404, 40r, 410, 415,421, 423: in

INDEX.

593

India, called tlu- •' pivot of the planets,"
4ls, in, ft-; in Arabia, "tin- hole where
the earth's ;i\le round its bearing," 448,
nnti-: in ancient (•recce. 450-453; Greek
Polo-, a >t:ir revolving on itself, 453,
45f; indicated bv cross symbol before
tlie use of swastika, t'il ; railed by
earlv Danes and Icelanders, "throne
of Tiior" or •' smaller Chariot," 473;
called by Finns " Taehti = star at the
top of 'the heavenly mountain," 473:
aiming the ancient Scandinavians and
then-descendants the Vikings, 474: cir-
cumpolar region, probal)le birth-place
of cult, 475; fable of countries in which
trace- of cult have been found, 4SO;
associated with u-e of lire drill in Old
and New World, 41)4: among Hindus,
49S; Greek Ixion, 50 J: Assyrian god
dess Isbtar called the " axis of tlie
heaven-," female Polaris. 5o:i ; ligured
by wooden or stone socket from which
lire and water llowed to the four quar
ter-, 50!; pole star god of the Hindus
compared with lire-drill god of Mexico,
~>o:>; rlie Mexican pole-star god com
pared with the Hindu, (ireek, Norse,
Ru->ian. etc., 505; Old and New World,
517 : 1'ineniciaiis steered by, from earli
est times, .Y23, 525; interval of time
when the pole star ceased to be con
spicuous, 525: maritime intercourse
interrupted, 5:11 : reappearance of, ">38;
summary and conclusions 544; Mes
opotamia!) prayer meetingof: >t:ir-wor-
shippers( Appendix II , 557.

Popocatepetl, volcano. Mexico. 275.

Popol-Vuh, sacred book of the Quiches,
1-2, iwtr, 113, -270.

Popular Science Monthly. 478.

Porto Kico, stone object's from, lls; cult
of aborigines. 118.

Powell. J. W., 2>8. note.

Powers, .Stephen, 105.

Pre-Columbian contact indicated by
samecosmical divisions and scheme of
government in Old and New World,
480-504: same symbolism, etc., 509-544;
traditions indicate, 525, 528, 529, 550:
question of contact between China and
America, 534 ; summary and conclu
sions, /H4.

Prescott, :>41.

Pritchard. W. T., I'M.

Proctor. Richard A., 102.

Propitiation, origin of. 177.

Ptolemy. 452.

Pueblo 'Indians, use of tan, 111); associate
step pyramid with rain, 132; allini-
ties with Mexican and Mava, 199; corn
maidens, 276.

Pull.-. Mr.. 318.

Pulque, in connection with cult of earth-
mother. 103 see < H-tli .

Puma, four heads terminating arms of
swastika at Tiahuanaco, see Quadru
ped, < >celot and Jaguar .

Putnam, F. W., 50. 1%. 199. 545.

Pyramid or sacred mountain: culmina
tion uf symbolism of cone, 118; in
mountain worship, 132; Maya word for
191: Lord of the Mountain a sovereign
title among the Quiche, '211; origin and
significance of. "251; typified numerical
divisions, 252: on statue "Divine
Twin." -20-:; origin attributed to the
Maya speaking people : at Teotihuacan,
263! interpretation of allix " can " in

names of Mexican and Mava towns,
•2(53, 264, 266, 2-;8; image of central, dual
and quadruple power, 269, not,'; of
(,'holula, ancient name for, means "the
monument or precious jade stone of
the Toltecs, etc.," -2fJ!): erected as place
of refuge from inundations, 272; svm-
bol ol Central power, and i|iiadruple
organization, 274; same as expressed
by swa-tika, -274: of Cholula, marks
the site of great and ancient Tollan,
27-"): as symbol of Centre in Cosmos,
•277; meaning of symbol, 282, 283; in
Chinese symbolism and social organi-
/ation. 287, 288, 333: in .Japan. 310;
in Hindu religion, 317: in Babylonia,
328; star-god called " Great mountain,"
329; identical with god in Babylonia
and in Assyria, 333: Hebrew god.
Yahwe. worshipped on Mount Sion,
351; Jerusalem founded on Mount
Zion, 352: holy mound symbol of god
Shamash of Assyria, 35(5: Ventral deity
of Babylonia called "the great moun
tain," 367; in Egypt expressed a whole
divided into four parts, 371; miniature
of cosmos, 379, 380; seven-storied pyra
mid of Sakkarah, Kgypt, 381, 386;" of
Begerauie, 427; -'holy mountain of
God" Book of Prophet Ezekiel, 449,
»<>{<•: the chief idol of Ireland was
called Cenn Craich (mound-chief), 469;
form of letter delta in Greek Alphabet,
511: summarv and conclusions, 544.

Pyramid temple at Chichen It/a, 207,
20S.

Pyrites, mirror of, used as symbol of
'sun-cult, 83.

Pvthagorean philosophy, 4^4-48-% note,
'515,526; Neo-Pythagorism, 527.

Quadruped, meaning of use as symbol,
282: represented Zuni state and sub
divisions, 2115; illustrated by Alligator
altar at Copan ami by " Great Turtle" at
Quirigua, also by tortoise in China. 296,
note (see Ocelot, Jaguar and Puma .

Quadruple organi/ation, in cosmos, and
scheme of government : origin of idea,
15; Maya, Mexican, and Zuni, 41, 42:
expressed in cross svmbols, 47-54:
Mexico divided into four parts, 83: at
time of Conquest, 75, 76; in ancient
map of Yucatan. S6: in ancient map of
Mexico, 88; in inca empire, 136, 144;
in Guatemala, 171, 172; in Ho»;ota, 171 :
among the T/.endals, 180. 181; Quiche,
182: in Yucatan sculptures, 185, 186: in
tree symbolism, 187, 192: carried north
ward, 196; in Huron Indian Confeder
acy. 19S; amonir Zuni. 201 : in Maya and
Mexican traditions, 208, 209; in Yucatan,
•2is. 223 : at Copan, 220, 228 : at Quirigua,
2:!2; at Palenque, 236; Palenque. Peru,
Guatemala, Yucatan. Mexico and
Zuni compared, 214: regulated by Cal
endar Stone. 245, 247, 254: in connec.
tion with pyramid building. 272, 273-
2*i2; in China, 286, 291 : represented by
human figure, 296; China and Mexico
compared, 297: in -Japan. 310-312: in
India. 313. 3ls, 481 ; in Mesopotamia,
321: in Persia, 325: in Assyria. 332-337,
335; in ancient Kgypt, 371', 372,399: in
Greece. 4.">4: indicated lirst by cross
symbol and later by swastika. 461 : in
ancient Koine, 4»'3; 'in ancient Ireland,
46<; in ancient Uritain. 470; in Scandi-

594

INDEX.

navia, 472; table of countries where
traces are found, 480-494; comparative
review, 509, 510; in cruciform struc
tures at Copan and Mitla, 51-2, 513;
chief ruler called " Four in One," 529
i, see, also. Numerical Divisions).

Quauh-Cihuatl = the Eagle woman, Mex
ican title, HO.

Quetquetzalcoa, plural of Quetzalcoatl,
title of his successors, TO, 97, 98.

Quetzal, feathers of, carved on feathered
1 serpent, 70; exhibiting colors of Four
Quarter!?, 70 ; used as Mexican symbol
of beloved chief or child, 190; totem at
l'alcnt|ue, 236, 237; totem at Cop.-in, "237,
(see also Bird).

Quetzalcoatl, invocation to: Creator and
maker, twin lord and twin lady. 32;
"wheel of the winds," 33; the divine
twin, centre of cosmos, 42; other
names for; myth concerning, 55; an
actual person who came from Yuca
tan, 67: ruled in Chichen-It/a, 68;
Maya title = Kukulcan, (J8; in Mexico
supYeme god. also god of lire, and of
the four winds, 70; successors to, 71:
was driven from Tnllan by enemies,
SS; established connection between
Chiehen -It/a and Mexico, 93; recum
bent liirure of, in temple of city of Tula.
95; sacrifices to, 96; trod of the winds,
96; built Caracol or Round Temple at
Chichen It/a, 97: Hound Temples in
Mexico dedicated to, 97. divine twin,
126 ; on sculptured slabs from Guatema
la. 151. 157; his craft called '-serpent or
twin raft." 160; another name for Maya
lord, Kukulcan. 2U6; brought colony
from Yucatan t> Mexico, 208; impor
tant historical person. -208: Tollan
abode of, 217; compared with figure on
C'opan sculpture, and with priest in
/uni creation myth, -223: figured with
beard, in Mexican codices, 231 ; mono
lith •' Divine Twin," 260, 2(52; image of,
in temple of Cholollan, 270; temple at
Tul a, 294.

Quetzalcoatl Totec Tlamacazqui, title of
high priest in service of Huit/.ilopo-
clitli.71: also title ot Monte/uma. 71.

(Quiche, Supreme Divinity of, 71, note;
Sacred book of. 72, note: totems. 104,
note; ninneiical and social system,
illustrated by tradition. 182; compared
with Zuni, 182; " Lord of the Moun
tain" title. 211; atlix in name, ch<:,
Maya word for tree. 235: used day and
year signs as personal and tribal
names, 253; traditions of destruction
of earth, 270.

Quila/.tli, sister of Huit/ilopoehtli, myth
concerning, 60; the mother of all, saYne
a> Cihuacoatl, 61, 07; compared with
Egyptian queen, 428.

Quirigua, sister city to Copan, 210; an
cient monuments, '215, 216, 218, 223, 229;
social organization same as that of Co-
pan, 230. 231, 232; totemic animals and
symbolic colors, 233; " Great Turtle,"
234, 240, 296, note: stela1 as memorial
stones of high priest rulers, 512; rem
nants of old civilization, 528.

Ra, Egyptian word for God, 409.

Rabbit' (tochtli), 78; Mexican calendar
sign; symbol of earth and reproduc
tion, used to represent sound of word,
octli, 78: figure of, indicates sacred

octli or earth-wine, 103; in Nahuatl
picture writing, 125; the rebus for
earth-wine or rain, 50(5.
Rabinal, 172.

Rain, Tlaloc, god of, 78, 81 ; figured with
scrolls about the eyes, 95; symbols, 96;
lords, four hundred in number, sacred
vase, emblem of, 102; Zuni rain-makers,
132; rites practised on summits of pyr
amids, 283; ancient festival described
in the Brahmauas, 496, 497; symbolized
by rabbit, 506.

Rattlesnakes, on monolith " Divine

• Twin," 261.

Raven, or summer people among the
/uiii, 201.

Rawnsley, 491.

Rays, carved on Calendar stone the idea
of, 255.

Read, C. II., 166.

Recumbent stone statues, 93-96, 185, 214.

Recurved staff or sceptre. 34.

Red land, in name of Mexican city Tla-
pallan, and of Chichen (It/a), 68;' " the
great ancient red land" in the East,
525.

Red man, origin of title 193; title of the
I'liu'iiicians, 521; in Genesis, 523;
Chichimecs of Mexico (literal! v, Red
race). 532.

Rig-Veda, 494, 496,497, 499, 500, 505, 521,
522.

Riksmuseum of Stockholm, 48.

Ring or circle, in Persia, 326 (see Circle
or ring).

Rio Lagartos. 217.

Rios, Padre, 11, 268,270.

Rivero, 134; and Tschudi, 150.

Roman, 150.

Roman Catholic Church, 537.

Roman Milliarum Aureinn. 513.

Rome, sacred fire, Roma Quadrata, 461 ;
duality, middle, quadruple government,
463: numerical divisions, 464; seven-
storied tower, 464; seven-day period,
465, 466,467; summary, in table of coun
tries, 493; Constantino's plan of state-
organi/ation in New Rome identical
with the numerical scheme of the Maya,
and Mexican calendars, 509: the sym
bolical use of the column. 513; amulet;
514; church built by Constantine in
form of Greek Cross', 514.

Rosa. Beltran de la, Isl.

Rosny, Leon de, 36.

Rotation (see Axial rotation).

Round form, associated with cult of
Heaven ortheAbo\e in Mexico, Cen
tral America; among Zufiis, 113-115; in
ancient architecture, 115; associated
with sky in Egypt, 371.

Round Temples of Chichen It/a and
Mexico, symbolism of, 97.

Royal Ethnographical Museum of Dres-
d'en, 129, 155.

Rust, Horatio N., 104.

Sabiean star-worship, 322.

Sabbath, derivation of name, etc., 327.

Sacrifice, human, sacred rite, in Mexico,
63; symbolism of, in Aztec religion, 66,
77: human victim formed living swas
tika, 91, 92; human blood used to mois
ten sacred dough, 98; origin of blood
sacrifices, 98; to Heaven and to Earth,
118; in Peru, 147, 148,151; in Mexico,
taking put heart of captive signified
destroying life of conquered tribe, 263;

INDEX.

595

in china, 290; Egyptian compared with
Mexican, 44-2, 443'.

Sacrificial-stone of Mexico = Tribute-
stone, or la\v-stone recording collection
of tribute*, etc., 258, 259.

Sahaurun, Friar Bernardino de, 8, 11, 32,
33, 34, 38, 39, 47, 51, 50, r,l, 00, 70, 72, 73,
75. 77-83, 104, 118, 123, 127, 128, 150, 159,
173, 17'), 170, ISO, 192, 245, 259, 201, 279,
507, 553. 555.

St. Augustine, 530.

Sakkarab, Egvptian seven-storied pvra-
mid, 381.

Salado, 2(i().

Salcamayhua, 132, 146, 148, 151, 101, 170, 186.

Salcamayhua tablet, 510. note.

Sanchez,' Jesus, 44, ;i3. 95, '.»•;, 157. note.

San Fun, ancient Chinese work, 2!U.

Saniah-ya-kwe : priesthood of the Hunt,
among the Zuiiis, 201.

San Salvador, nuishrooin-sliaped stone
figures from. 114.

Santa Lucia Co/uinalhuapa, sculptured
slabs at, 153, 15t, lr,3, 172.

Sapper, Carl, 114, 173.

Satow and Hawes' Handbook of -Japan,
570.

Saville, M. II , 513.

Saxo Grammatious. 172.

Sayce, A. H., 324. 327, 347, 348. 349. 425,
44!i. 4M.491, 518, 51;i, 520. 521, 524,525, 527,
532, 540, 572.

Scandinavia, triskelion associated witli
swastika, 28, 29; Greek fret, 121: nu
merical divi>ions; middle; FourQuar-
teis; l"rsa Major called " Thor's
Wagon;" sacred mountain and tree;
axial rotation: cult of Polaris: duality ;
flora and fauna. 471-479: summary, in
table of countries, 493; use of wheel in
early times, also mill stone, 502, 503.

Scarab, meaning of emblem, secret sign
for "bidden god," 3:)7, 399.

Sceptre, with gold disk, in Mexico, 80, 81 ;
emblem of soverein'iitv in Assvria and
Babylonia, 305; in Egypt, 425.'

Scheli'has, 1'., 107, 108. 109, 111, 182.

Schlagintweit, 294,301.

Schleirel. G., 284.

Schliemann, II.. 45'.), 400, 5ls.

Schroeder. 520, 508.

Schuchhardt, 518.

Scorpion, Maya 7in-an; svmbol of Mict-
lantecuhtli, 9.

Scotland, ust! of checker-board design,
124.

Sed festival. 425, 429, 431.

Seldeu MS., 57, 90, 5(is, note.

Seeds, in symbolism of earth mother,
K)9; in Maya codices, 111 ; seeds of life,
/ufii, Mexican, Mava, 223, 225; on Tab
let of the Cross, 23!!; on Copan swas
tika ; among Zufii, 230 ; conventionalized '.
maize seeds. 237; idols formed of seeds
in Esrypt and Mexico, 442. 443.

Seler, E\, 109, 129.

Semiramis, temple of, 347.

Semites, 350-352, 521; name of Supreme
srod—Yahu or Yaho or Yahve, 532;
allied to the Phoenicians, 540, note, 541.

Sendschirli tablet, 305.

Sepher Hathora, Hebrew book of the i
law. 351.

Serpent, in ancient religious symbolism : !
associated with time, 20, 27; Nahuatl
name = twin. Maya name= four, 31 ;
symbol of dual or quadruple nature, ;
31; of eternal lite and the Creator, 32; !

cursive sign for, 38; on shell gorgets
from Mississippi valley, 49, 112; origin
of symbol, 50; divine ruler of four
quarters, 08, 69; feathers with (see
Feathered serpent) 70, 71; pertaining
to earth-mother, 100; double-headed,
forming vase, 101 ; in connection with
tree of 'life, 103, 110, 189; with burial of
woman, 107; with symbol of Earth,
111; associated with air symbol, 120; in
ancient Peruvian fable, 152; on sculpt
ured slabs from Guatemala, 154; totem
of tribe conquered by Incas, 157; in
arms of Mexico, 157; on silver pendant
from Cu/.co, 170; with seven heads,
symbolical of Mexican and Maya seven
tribal divisions, 181; of dual ruler, 190;
mythological snake among the Pueblo
people, 200: symbol of Below among
the Zufii, 204; totemic animal of UxmaT,
214; at Copan and Quirigua, 219, 220,
223, 228; on " Cross Tablets " at Palen-
que, 236, 238, 239; on Calendar-stone,
255; on monolith •' Divine Twin," 261 ;
of gold and mosaic on statue of Huitz-
ilopochtli, 206; meaning of symbol, 281;
in India, 313; in Persia, 325 ;'in Babylo
nia, 335; worshipped in the temple of
Solomon, 351; in Egvptian symbolism,
:5S9. :;r»l , 393, 424 : in Old and New World,
522-523.

Serpent-woman, oo, 61, 05; Cihuacoatl,
Mexican ruler, 07, 77. 79, 111; emblem
of. figured and described, 128.

Seven, sacred number, 29,56 (see sum
mary, 48U-494; also Numerical divis
ions").

Shakespeare, 247. n<>t< .

Shamash, temple of, in Bain Ionia, 331;
antiquity of cult of, 332; 'symbols of,
350; cross and four-spoked wheel of,
355, 305,495: image of, made by a race
of pole. star worshippers, 503; compared
with " black or night sun" on Mexican
Calendar stone, 506.

Shang, Chinese word for Above, 118.

Shang-te, Chinese supreme ruler, whose
residence was " Tien " = Heaven, 301.

S-shape, I'rsa Minor figured as, 11;
bron/e brooch from Scandinavia, 29;
on native fabrics, in Vienna Codex, 34;
in B. X. MS., 34. 38: in Sahagun's His-
toria, 34: cakes in shape of, 34; associ
ated with star signs and the North, 35;
in Mexican and Maya codices, 35, 30;
sign of summer solstice, 30; with cross
and rain symbols, 37; breads in shape
of, 40; figure on Phoenician tablet, 395,
note.

Shell trorgets, representing winged hu
man being, 39, nott-; in Illinois, Mis
souri and Tennessee, showing cult of
Polaris, 44; from Tennessee, 48, 49;
evidence of identical symbolism from
Yucatan to Illinois. 48-52, 112.

Shell, symbol of parturition, 95, 238.

Shell pendant, symbolism of, 112.

Shinto religion, 311.

Shiwana-kwe, priesthood of the priest-
people among the Zuni. 201.

Shoo king, 289. 29,), 292, 295, 298, 299.

Shogunate, 311.

Shun, Chinese emperor succeeding Yaou,
292, 29s

siculus. Diodorus, 329, note, 540, note.

sidnn, 527.

Siena, Italy, founded by sons of Remus,
affinities "with ancient Rome, 405.

596

INDEX.

Simpson. \Vm., 31:!.

Sippara, tablet of, 331. 332. 350. 356, 305,
4 iC>, 503. 5011.

Situa. Peruvian festival when the cults
of Above and Below \vere celebrated,
134.

Siva, cult of, compared with cult ol
Earth-mother, 314.

Skull, artilicially deformed in ancient
Porn, 143.

Sky-father among the Zuni, -201.

Sniith, Professor, 522.

Smyth, ria//i, star-map, 20, 43.

Snail, symbol of parturition. 111.

Social organization in Mexico, at time of
Monte/uma, mvths relating to origin
of, 54. 02-75 (see Quadruple organiza
tion and Numerical divisions;.

Society Islands, study of Pleiades in,
f>-2.

Solomon, built altar to Astarte in .Jeru
salem, 350; built altars to Kamosh,
god of the Moabites, and to Milkom,
ifod of the Ammonites. 351.

Solomon's temple, 327. 344. 522.

Solon, 445, 447, 44s, 455. 520.

Solar or civil year, divisions, '254.

Solstice, slimmer, 30; winter. 4(>: light
ing sacred tires at time of. S>.

Sommier, Stephen. 477.

Sophocles, 453.

South America, symbolism of, compared
with that of Mexico, 1 -2-2, -224 (see Peru).

Southern Cross, 102.

South, Acatl=cane, blue, Mexican em
blem and color of, 42.

South Kensington Museum. 210, 227, '234,
231», 313.

Spamer, 33'2, 4-28, 457.

Spear-throwers, on tablet at Chichen
It/a, and on Mexican Tribute Stone,
•251).

Speed, John. 470.

Sphinx, Egyptian, 373.379.

Spider, a symbol of Mictlantecuhtli. 37;
tradition 'about Tezcatlipoca's descent
from theskv bv a spider's thread. 44;
in Xahuatl = tocatl, in Maya = am;
symbol originated in Yucatan, 47: on
shell-gorgets from Illinois, Tennessee
and Missouri, 47, 49: in ancient MSS..
1)0, 202; in /urii symbolism, 201 ; Maya
symbol of the North, 278; web of, use
a"s symbol of numerical divisions, '21(3,
535, n off.

Spindle, as symbol of axial rotation, in
connection with cross symbols on terra
cotta spinning whorls, 498.

Spinning tops, 547, note.

Spinning whorls, symbolic of rotary
motion, in Trov, 498: in Mexico, 504,
508.

Square form, associated with Earth in
native American symbolism and arch
itecture, 115, 200, -284; in Egypt, 371.

Stadacone. same as Canada. 197.

Stanley. Dean. 514, note.

star symbol, a black dot, 35: an eye, 36,
ii'ifc,' -y\. lie,. 1 .V>, note. 209. 279: suspend
ed by thread, symbol of night (Egypt
ian), 387; plain circle in Chinese sym
bolism. 391 ; expressed numeral live in
Egypt, 398 (see Polaris).

Star-cult (see Polaris).

Star god, in Babylonia. P>el; in Asia
Minor, A hbaal, "identified with pole-
star, 329 (see Polaris).

Star-map. Piaz/i Smyth's, -20.

Star-names in Maya.' -278.

Stehe, purpose of erection, marked peri
ods of time, 21(j; atC'opan and Quiri-
gua, 219-240; correspond with Ahua-
ka-tun, the -20-year memorial stone, 221 ;
of Assyrian kings, having seven svm-
bols. seven circles, etc,., 337-3(50: Esar-
haddon of Sendschirli, 342, 359: P.av-
ian, 357,358, 359: of Sargon, 357,359;
trilingual stela of Cano])us, preserved
at (ii/.eh, 378: funeral stela at Bfilak,
421; at Quirigua and Copan memorial
• stones of high priest rulers, with title
"Divine Four"; built over hiddeji
cruciform vaults, compared with tire
Egyptian " star of Horns," 512, 513.

Stevenson, 150.

Stolpe, Hjalmar, 48, 121,224.

Stoll, Otto, 79, 8.1, 104, 173.

Stomach, symbolized the Centre or Mid
dle, in China, 21)6.

Stone, rough or worked, emblem of
Earth mother, buried with the dead,
lo*;.

Stone of Tizoc, compared with Altar K
of Copan, 220.

Stone collar, from Porto liico. analogous
to stone yokes of Mexico, 118.

Stone figures, recumbent, bearing circu
lar vessels, 93; figured, 94 (see Recum
bent stone iigure).

Stone knives, Hint knife in wrappings,
Mexican and Maya symbol of Earth
mother, 55, 56; among California Indi
ans, 105.

Stone monuments, of Peru (Tiahuanaco),
164-109; Central America, 154, -218-233;
Yucatan, 234-244; Mexico, 245-275.

Stone " seats," found in Ecuador, analo
gous to vase or earth symbols, 107.

Stone tiger with human head and de
pression in back, found in Mexico and
Yucatan, 95.

Stone tables, at Chichen It/a, 212; Maya
name for — Mayac-tun, 213; used as
drums in sacred ceremonies. 213.

stone tablet at Sippar. 331, 332.

Stone vessels, found in Mexico and Yu
catan, 213.

Stone "yokes," compared with symbolic
vase: pertained to cult of earth-mother;
in use among Indians of Southern Cali
fornia, 104; in connection with burial
of priestesses of Helow, 107.

Strabo, 329.

Strebel, Hermann, 104, 153, 156,157, 105,172.

Stiibel, A., 107, 109.

Sturlesson, Snorri, 471.

Sumerians, inhabited the South = Sinner,
334.

Summary, of stud}' of ancient Ameri
can symbols, — cross, serpent, tree,
llower,'etc., 279-284; use of human and
animal Iigure in svmbolism, 290 ; of
countries in which are found the
"Quadruple Organization," pole->tar
worship, etc., 480-494; and Conclu
sions, 544-502; and tables of words used
in the Old and New World in connec
tion with a certain culture based on
pole-star worship, Appendix 1, 548: and
Appendix III, 5i;2.

Sun cult, Nahuatl word for sun applies
equallv to the stars; day sun and night
sun; Ollin, symbol of "13; superseded
by star cult, 22; associated with star-
cult. 53,54; Black Sun in B. X. MS.,

INDEX.

597

myth concerning, 54, 55: emblem of
Montezuma, 72; Montezuma, high
priest of, 74; mirror of polished pyri
tes, symbol of. S3; rival of star-cult,
>3; sacrifices to, in Mexico, 117, 118; in
Peru, 1:54; superseded by belief in
Creator, among: the Ineas,*135; temple
of. at Cuzeo, 138; upper class maidens
in Peru, dedicated to, 14:5, 145. 148, 1 19.
170; among' Muyscas of Bogota, 171;
astronomical attainments of priests of,
INI; •• Virgins of the Sun" and suu-
priests in'Mexico and Peru, 1SI4; Sun-
lather of the 7u.ii, 200, 201, 204, 7io£e;
on Copan sculpture, 222; in Mexican
calendar-stone, 249: lour movements
of. 252; golden effigy of, associated
with Incas in Peru. 264; Enclosure of,
name of pyramid at Teotihua-Can, 264,
267; tablet of the sun. in China, 285; tem
ple of, 286: altars, 3*7; sun-goddess of
Japan. 311; among the Hindu, 312; ill
religion of Persia". 325: in Babylonia
and" A>syria. 332; in Egypt, 382'; king
of Egypt associated with, 389, 4-J4 :
Egyptian goddess Hathor-Isis was
called the female sun, 432; develop
ment of cult in Egypt, 438; C;vsar
called >on of the sun, 440.

Supreme being 'see Creator or Supreme
liein- -

Sut-staw-ra-tse, the leader of the " Kin»--
dom of Hochelaga," 1!)7.

Swastika, in Mexican Calendar. 9, 18, 41;
origin of symbol; formed by positions
of I'rsa Major. 15, 16, IS; various forms
of. illustrated. 17, 19; geographical
distribution of. 19; date when first used
as symbol, 20, 21 ; sign for a year or cy
cle of time, 23; suggests axial rotation,
24. noti-; formed by four serpents in
Codex Borgia, 27: associated with tris-
kelion, on spearhead from Branden
burg: on bronze brooch from Scandi
navia. 28: formed by combination of
star groups, 29. 30: suggested by star-
symbol on pottery from Nicaragua and
Arizona. 51, .'.2: "origin of the idea of
dividing everything into four parts, 76;
represented by Zufii idol, 129: rounded
and square forms of, at Tialuianaco,
(J66J terminating in four puma heads,
symbol of central ruler, 209; "The Co-
pan Swastika," 222, 223, 224; the pyra
mid, a later development of same idea,
274: in different part* of the world,
accompanied with pole-star worship,
etc.. 276-280; in Mexico and Ohio valley,
linked with >erpent: in Copa.n. with
Middle and Four Quarters, 2SO; Chris
tian cro-s compared with, 30*5; use of
symbol in China, 3QH'; in Japan, 311;
meaning conveyed by figure of Buddha
315: ^in 'Egypt, 409; on Egyptian seal,
4f>9: on coin from island of Crete, 457;
on coin from Syracuse; on coin from
Corinth: on vases from Troy, 459; in
Greece. 459, 460; on Cyprian and Ca-
rian pottery; on Greek vases found at
Naukratis; on Coptic grave cloths; on
mummy case from Hermopolis: on
whorls'from Trov, 460; date of its use
as symbol, 4*!] ; later development of
the c'ross symbol, 461; in Scandinavia,
474: on image found in Troy, 496; iden
tical in significance in Old and New
World. 510: symbolized (i Four in One,"
and stable centre, 511 ; in some parts of

gra
by

Germany and Bohemia is still the sign
of the stone-mason's guild, 516; or cross-
symbol, same meaning in all countries,
534, 538; summary and conclusion.-.
544.

Sweat house, Nahuatl name of, 124. -
Symbolism, in central United States iden
tical with that of Mexico and Yucatan,
48, 49, 50; of Mexico inlluenced by mi
ration from Yucatan, 67; influenced
sound of word, among the Mayas
and Mexicans, 110, 183. 185, 186, 284:' in
China, 277; showing linguistic affinities
between Mayas, and early peoples of
the Mississippi valley, 112; same in
Peru, Central America, Yucatan and
Mexico, 170; resemblances between
Pueblo people and Mayas and Mexi
cans, 199, 200,236; same in Copan, 226;
in Palenque and Quirigua, 240; on Call
endar stone explained, 247: symbols
connected with Middle, etc.j 277; with
Four Quarters, Above and Below, 278;
names of Mexican svmbols often trans
lations of Maya name, 278; recapitula
tion of important native symbols, 279-
284; year symbols in Mexico and China,
291; resemblances and differences,
Chinese and American, 293-296; sum
mary of use of human and animal fig
ure, 296; explanations and illustrations
of Egyptian symbols, 367-461 ; Egyptian
pyramid and mummy, 379-381; of an
cient Scandinavia, 474; symbols denot
ing axial rotation, 494; in architecture
(see window, tau, pyramid, Greek fret,
round form, square form, color, etc.) ;
of human form (see separate refer
ences under Human) ; for special sym
bols, see separate references.
Syracuse, coins from, swastika with hu-
"man head in centre, 459.

Tabasco. 211.

Tablet, containing ancient map of Baby
lonia (note following Index).

Talon, of beast of prey, symbol of four
lords of lielow. 185.

Taouism, 298,301, 31 >6.

Tarahumari Indians, ceremonies typify
ing fecundity of earth, etc., compared
with those of ancient Mexicans, 101.

Tartan design, 122, 123, 124. ,

Tau. double, shape of courtyard, 82. 86,
S7; signified union of Above and Be
low; inverted, emblem of Above; up
right emblem of the Below, 118: in
American ceremonial rite; among the
cliff dwellers of Colorado; among the
Pueblo Indians; in Scandinavia, called
Thor's hammer; in architecture of Cen
tral America, and Palenque; in dance
of Moqui Indians; different forms of,
figured and described, 119. 122; in
checker-board or tartan design, 123;
suggested by fire-drill, 280; tan-shaped
cross in Mesopotamia, 321; tan-shaped
altar in Egypt, 411.

Taylor, E. B", 297. vote.

Taylor. W. C., 463, 4(<8, 4,*8, in>1< .

Tecpan. Mexican council house ; mean
ing of word. 183.

Tecpatl, symbol of the North, 10, 34: flint
knife. 45, 46; sacred producer of vital
spark. 47; myth concerning, 54; figured
as offspring of dual divinity, 55; sym
bol of Fire, 56: emblem of'" supreme
pontiffs." 62: one of the four year

598

INDEX.

symbols, 7(5; in liorgian Codex, 98; on
carved slab from Santa Lucia, 172;
possible origin of name, which means
" to govern, 183; on Sacrificial Stone
of Mexico, 25$.

Teen-hwang-ta-tee, Chinese name for the
pole-star, 284, 302.

Temistitan, ancient name for capital of
Mexico, 542.

Temple of Mexico, 58, 80, 83, 90, US.

Temples, of the " Tigers " at Chichen-
Itza,2I2; " 11." at Copan, 222; of "the
Inscriptions " at Palenque, 235, 240; of
" the Sun," 235, 239, 240; of "Cross Xo.
2," 235. 243; of 1'tah at Memphis, 367;
at Abydos. 386.

Tenayocan, name of Mexican town con
taining the atUx " Can," 263.

Tennessee, cult of Polaris indicated by
emblems on shell-gorget, 44.

Tenochtitlan, 63; hieroglyph in centre
of ancient Maya and Mexican maps, 88.

Teo-Culhuacan, from Tc«tl, stars, sun.
gods, something divine; and Cttlhtift,
something recurved, and can, the place
of= uaiiu' for A/.tlan, of!.

Teotihuacan, pyramids of, 140, 199, 263,
264: description of ruins, registry of
death hv small clay heads, 267; Pyra
mids show knowledge of " (Jreat
Plan;" great antiquity; advanced
stage of intellectual development, 268;
same civili/ation as builders of Pyra
mid of Cholula, 2(59; two cults, two lan
guages (Maya and Xahuatl) and dual
rulership, 274, 529.

Teotl, represented by imau;e of sun;
signifies something divine, 13, 65; title
of the upper class 'in Mexico, 102, 140;
meaning a divinity or divine lord and
applied' to all lord's or rulers, 279.

Terra cotta heads and figures in Mexico
and Peru. 139, 140.

Terrace form, rain symbol, i:'>2.

Tet, Egyptian symbol of eternity, de
scribed and analyzed, 394.

Texcoco, 55, 163, 1S5.

Texoxoctli, stone placed with dead of
lower class, 195.

Te/caM, obsidian mirror, 10.

Tezcatlipoca, meaning of name; identi
cal with Mictlantecuhtli, 8; surrounded
by circle of footsteps; myth concern
ing, 9; symbols of, representations of ;
fastened' to symbol of the Xorth, 10;
star-cult connected with, 11; synony
mous names, 11; myth concerning, 12,
26,44, 45; associated with the Below,
the female region, 42; with black, 62;
title of, means " Heart of the Earth,"
72, note; "Shining Mirror, "79; image
of, beside the idol of Huitzilopoehtli,
in great temple of Mexico, 60,82,265;
lord of the Nocturnal Heaven, 82;
priests of. called " Sons of the Xight,"
connected with divination, 83; honored
jointly with Huitzilopochtli at Toxcatl
'festival, 9"; flint knife, emblem of, 103;
compared with Zuni idol, 128, 129; sug
gested by symbols at Tiahuanaco, 166;
tradition', 208; fire-drill god, 505, 507.
Tezolotlan, termed the land of war, 172.
Tezozomoc, 11, 40, 60, 61, 79.
Themistius of Byzantium, 542.
Theodosius, 530.
Theophrastus, 519.

Thibet, astronomical science, 301 ; Bud
dhist of, 315.

Thomas, Cyrus, 109.

Thor, Xorse supreme god, 473.

Thor's hammer, 119.

Thucydides, 457.

Tiahuanaco, place of first appearance of
Incas, 133; monolithic doorway, 165;
swastika sacred symbol, 166; ruins of,
167-1 69, 209.

Tiberius Claudius, 440.

Tien (Chinese), Heaven, also Supreme
ruler, 301.

Tiger, in stone, with human head and
hollow depression in back, found in

. Yucatan and Mexico, 95; on sculpture
from Mitla, 163; "Tiger's arm," title of
prince in ancient Mexico, 163; head,
symbol on monolithic doorway at Tia
huanaco, Peru, 165; heads, at end of
swastika; on sculptured doorway. 166;
in headdress on sculptures, 167; war
rior caste of Mexico ; temple of, at Chi-
chen Itza, 212 (see Puma, Jaguar and
Quadruped).

Tikal, 210; classification of ruins, 215.

Tim a.- us, 445.

Time, Egyptian sign, circle with dot, 387.

Tinamit, on Usumacinto river, 215.

Tionontate or Tobacco Xation, 197.

Titicaca lake, as place of first appear
ance of Incas, 133, 539.

Tititl, name of Mexican feast, 79.

Tizoc, stone of, 9, 172, 212.

Tlaeaxipehualiztli, ritual at festival of,

Tlachtli, courtyard in shape of double
tau, <^7; ancient Mexican game, 176.

Tlaloc, title of god of rain, 78, 99; desig
nated by surrounding his eyes with
two blue rings, 81.

Tlatoque, literally, " The speaker" title
of chief of clan', 178.

Tlaxcalla, republic of; government of,
army of, 75; recumbent stone figures
bearing circular vessels, found in, 93;
small republic of Mexico, name signi
fies bread; hieroglyphic sign is maize-
cake, 272.

Tloquenahuaque, title of "Creator" in
texcoca, 163.

Tochtli, one of the four year symbols,
76; rabbit, 78; tochtli-gods, agents of
Cihuacoatl, 78.

Tollan, abode of Quetzalcoatl, 217; na
tive name for Cholollan, 275.

Toltecas, representatives of high civili
zation of ancient Yucatan, 89,; master-
builders, 234, 253, 254, 529.

Topiltzin, title of supreme pontiff, of
Quetzalcoatl or divine twin, 77, 96.

Torqnemada, 54, 55, 60, 67, 77, 95, 96, 150.

Tortoise, among the Iroquois, 197; in
Mexico, 279; Mava word for ac, 281;
in Chinese symbolism, 296.

Totemism, Xorth American Indian, 154,
197 ; Peruvian, 157, 201 ; Quiche, 164, note;
Zuni, 201, 204; Copan and Zuni, 227;
and Quirigua, 233; Fire people of Mex
ico,— the ocelot ; Air people,— the bird,
254; in relation to signs of zodiac and
to the stars, 255; in Babylonia, 348; alli
gator totem in India and Mexico, 520;
among the Semites, 521, 522; serpent to
tem among Semites, Mayas, Xahuas,
and Peruvians, 522, 523.

Toxcatl festival, Tezcatlipoca and Huitz
ilopochtli, jointly honored, 97.

Traditions (see " Myths and Tradi
tions").

INDEX,

599

Tree symbolism, tree of life in Vienna
Codex, 103; in Dresden Codex, 110; in
ancient America, 186; among the Incas,
186; among the Mexicans, social organi
zation represented by, 187; Above and
Below, 188; serpent 'and Polaris, 189;
embodied male and female elements,
188; shape of human figure, 189: used
to signify lord or trovernor. also an
cestor, 189, 190; sacred tree of the
Mayas, 191 ; among Peruvians, Mexi
cans and Mayas, image of social organ
ization, 192: in symbolic carving from
Brazil or Guiana. 224 ; symbol of tribe
in America. 235, 236, 237, 242, 243, 507,
iioti-; symbol of the year in Mexico,
241; die, Maya word for tree, zin die
= cross, literally tree of life or of i
power. 278; quahuitl, Nahuatl word for j
tree, symbol of Centre; homonymous
with (jnaitl, meaning head, 279; reca
pitulation of meaning of symbol, 281:
compared with Chinese "symbol of
•• wood. "294; in Buddhist religion, 321 ;
in Babylonia and Assyria, on bas-re
lief at Nimroud, 360; as sacred symbol,
361; tree worship, by Hebrews, Plneni-
cians, Assyrians, 362-364; celestial tree
of life in garden of Paradise, 365; the
ash-tree of the Norsemen on the sum
mit of the Hill of Heaven. 472; symbol
of .-tar god, Polaris, 474: tribal trees in
India. Egypt, Mexico. Central America
and Peru", 499; the celestial tree of the
Norsemen and Semites, 503: in ancient
America, 506, 507.

Tribute stone. Mexican " Sacrificial "
stone. 259.

Triskelion. companion symbol to swas
tika: formed by polar" constellations
at winter-solstice, 27: not u>ed in the
South but with swastika in the North,
28; on pottery from Arkansas; on
spearhead from Brandenburg; on
bronze brooch from Scandinavia, 28;
formed by combination of star groups,
30: sign of winter solstice. 37.

Trocadero Museum, 104, 174, note.

Troneoso, Francisco del Paso v. 13.82, 250,
252.

Trov, vases from, having swastika or
cross symbol, 459.

Troy, spindle whorls with swastikas and
allusion to pole-star god, Tur, 498.

Tschudi. 134.

Tuch-pan. name of capital of Ma\ a col
on v, 125, 2H7.

Tula', 60; city of, 95.

Tulapan. 2lo'.

Tullan, 173: name of culture hero's home,
68; meaning of, in Maya language, 68;
identity not established; beautiful
land of the Aztecs, Mayas, Kiches and
Cakchiquels ; Cakchiquel legend re
garding; Maya migration from, 88,268.

Tullan Cholollan, ancient seat of civili
zation; probable place where scheme
of organization was evolved, and where
traditions of destruction of earth origi
nated. 268, 274, 275.

Turanian, originally a northern race,
(f-.ee Phoenicians), 517.

Turtle, at Quirigua, 234; in Egyptian
symbolism, 398.

Tusayan, ceremonies, symbols and
myths compared with those of Central
America, 200.

Tuscaroras, 196.

Tutulxius, 211 ; immigrant.^ into Yucatan,
tradition concerning, 210.

Twin, divine (see Dual Divinity).

Twin serpents, on Mexican Calendar
Stone, symbolizing dual forces of na
ture, and quadruplication, 257; on dual
statues, on summit of great Temple of
Mexico, 266.

Tylor, E. B., 196. 363.

Tyre, destruction of, by the Greeks, 527.

Tzendals, culture hero "of, 60, 71, 72; cal
endar Mgns, 180; social organization
and numerical system, 181, 182.

Tzilan. ancient capital in Yucatan, 234.

Tzitzimi-Cihuatl, name of Quilaztli, 60.

Uhle, Max, 167-169.

Upsala, university of, 230, note.

I'rhye, Chinese dictionary, 292.

Ursa Major, myths concerning, 8, 11, 12;
meaning of name in Nahuatl, 8, 9; four
positions of form swastika, 14-22;
nearer to pole-star in remote antiquity,
21; rotary motion, 22; positions of,
scratched" on rocks, beginning of ae-
tronomical records, 23; Tezcatlipoca
and ocelot associated with, 26; in rela
tion to sacred numbers, 29; resembles
s shape, 34: in relation to idea of
Above and Below. 40: ancient Mexi
cans claimed descent from Ursa Major
ami Minor. 57: on calendar stone, 246,
25o; identified as star-god, " Youal-
tecuhtli" mentioned by Sahagnn, 279;
amonir the ancient Chinese, 284. 285,
291. 298,302: in Hindu religion, 319; in
Babylonia and A s.-yria, 358, note; in
Egypt. 378, 382, 384, 385, 397, 400, 410;
Akkadian title, Akanna = the Lord
of Heaven, 3!'4; Greek name for Heli<-e,
447 ; as sailing guide in ancient Greece,
451, 452; became circuinpolar about
15. C. 4( On. time of adoption of swastika
symbol, 461.

Ursa Minor, S-shaped figure sign of, 11,
29; connected with Tezcatlipoca, 12;
lotation of, 18; suavastika formed by,
19; in relation to sacred number, 29, 33;
represented by recurved sceptre, 34;
represented by Maya glyph, Hun-Imix,
35: in connection with "Polaris, 36; in
relation to idea of Above and Below,
40; symbol of; s shaped breads made
in honor of, 46: ancient Mexicans
claimed descent from Ursa Major and
Minor, 57: in Copan swastika, 224: in
Egypt, 382; in Babylonia-Assyria =
Kakkabu, 400; in ancient Greece as
sailing guide, 451.

Usumacinto river, 235.

Uxmal. House of the Doves, symbolism
of, 131; symbolic hand on garment of
chieftain'. 1S4: the serpent city of
America, 214; ruins in, 216.

Valentin!, P. J. -I., 256. tintr.

Valera, Padre Bias, 151.

Varuna, name of supreme god in India,
312.

Vase, or Bowl, symbol of earth mother,
100; emblem of the rain priests or Octli
gods, 102; worn in nose as emblem;
meaning of, 103; containing rabbit or
Hint knife, 104; as conventionalized
serpent jaw, resembles horseshoe-
shaped stoTie "yoke," 104; considered
sacred among Zuni Indians, 105; reason
of vase decoration, 105, 106; grave

600

INDEX.

made in shape of; buried with dead to
propitiate earth-mother; used as burial
urn. 106: stone -Seats" indicate analo
gous cult of earth-mother south of
'Mexico. 107; Maya day-sign, Caban,
KIT: in Mava codices, 107, 108; figured
as day sign, ch'en, 111); associated with
seeds' and germination, by Mayas and
Mexicans, 111; in Vienna Codex, 123,
124; sacred bowl among Pueblo In
dians, 132; in hand of ruler on Copan
sculpture. 222, 224, 22."); bowl of water,
preceded use of obsidian mirror, in
divination, -225 ; Maya supreme priest '
called "Lord of the vase or bowl," 22(5;
on Tablet of the "Cross 2," at Palenque,
236; recapitulation of meaning of sym-
luil, 283; used for astronomical pur
poses among pigmy races, and in Plue-
nicia, Assyria and Kgypt, 339; large
terra-cotta jars found at Ni])pur. and
in temple of Solomon. 344; canopie
vases in Kgypt, 37'2 ; same idea em
bodied in pyramid, 386; in zodiac signs,
39.'); symbol of god Amen-Ra, 408; in
cult of Egyptian goddess, Tsis, 424.

Vedas. 312, 314. ^'2, note, 494, 4%, 497, 499,

' 500, f>05, 521. 522.

Vega, Garcilaso de la. I3i;. 137. 150. 151.

Vega, Nune/ de la, 180, 181, 182.

Venice, compareil to Mexico. 84.

Venus, temple of Mexico dedicated to,
planet of. 53; on Calendar-stone, 252.

Vikings, cult of Polaris, 474.

Villa vicencio, 150.

Virgins of the Sun, in Mexico and Peru,
194.

Vishnu, cult of, 314.

Volcanoes, a- probable cause of tradi
tions of destruction of earth. 270-275.

Von Herder. -14'.), note.

Von Lusehan, 342, 358, note, 359, 360.

Von Se.hroeder, L.. 4S|. 458. note.

Votan, culture hero of the Tzendals, title
"the Master of the Sacred Drum." 60,
71-72. note.

Vulture, totem of Quiche chieftain. 164:
in Kgyptian symbolism. 3:»8, 425. 42(5.

Wales. Druidic Celi Ced corre>ponds to
Egvptian Amen-Ha; dual power: Cen
tral ruler: numeral seven in Welsh
legend. 471

Wampum belts, Iroquois, 197-199.

Wan, Chinese word for swastika. 309.

Warburg, A.. UK.

Waring. 459.

Warren. William F., 475. 5(i6.

Water, sacred pool in temple of Mexico,
225: in connection with star cult. 226;
associated with tire-drill and socket in
Old and New World. 5i>5.

Water era. one of the four eras of the
world, 253.

Water goddess, called Chalchiutlvcue,
91.

Water and air design, encircling the
mitre of the Lord of the Above; on
mantles of Montezuma's predecessors,
125; emblem of cult of Above. 126.

Weaving, art of among the Huaxtekans.
207-208. nnte.

West, Cihuatlampa (in Xahuatl)= place
of the women, 38; in Cosmos = Calli —
house, yellow, earth, darkness. 42;
door of the Underworld. 54: female re
gion. 64.

Webster's Dictionarv. 419

Wheat, stalk of. vear svmbol in China.
291.

Wheel, emblem of the Deity and of rota
tion, among ancient Mexicans, 33; rep
resented by Mexican dance, 59; the
four-spoked wheel of Shamash in Bab
ylonia and Assyria, 332, 35(5, 365: sym
bol of axial rotation and time in Old
World, 500; associated with pole-star
in .Japan, 501 : use of, known in Japan
and China from the earliest times.
501-5(12; in Scandinavia, 502; first relig
ions and their royal symbol — possibly
evolved from the stone lire socket, 503
(see Axial Rotation).

Wheelwright, K. M., 514, 515.

Whitney, J. 1)., 449, not,', 452. note..

Wickersham, .James, 28*\ 292.

Wiener, 132, 146.

Williams, 288.

Wilson, Sir Daniel, 540.

Wilson, Thomas, 19, 23, 28, 50. 318. 459,
460.

Wind-god, symbol of, 34.

Windows, symbolism of, in Mexico, Cen
tral America and elsewhere, 120, 121.

Winged disk, in Assyria, 356, 357.

Winter solstice, triskelion sign of, 27, 28.

Woman, origin of idea of inferiority, 65;
position of, in Peru and Mexico! 194:
"Corn Maidens" and "Mothers" in
America, 276: in China, 286, 287; In
Babylonia-Assyria, 341 ; in Greece and
Ronie. 345 in Egypt, 426-436.

Writing, ^cursive and ikonomatic of the
Old World; picture writing adopted
by Spanish missionaries to New World,
534-535, note; Egyptian hieratic script,
535, note; numerical value of letters in
Greek alphabet; Maya calculiform
hieroglyphs: geometrical figures used
by Phoenicians, 536, note.

Wii. Chinese empress, 309.

Wylie, Alexander. 303. 305, 481, note.

Xicalango. 211.

Xilomaniztli, another name for the fes.
tival "I/.calli:" meaning the birth or
sprouting of the young mai/e. 241.

Xiuhtecuhfli, Mexican 'lord of the year
or of lire; emblem of, figured and de
scribed: called the turquoise: or grass,
green pyramid, 129, 214, 223.

Xius, tribe of ancient Yucatan. 211.

Xonecuilli, native name for Ursa Minor
(see Ursa Minor).

Xoxouhqui-ilhuieatl (Nahuatl) = the ver
dant or blue sky, a title of Iluitzilo-
pocbtli, 72.

Yang and Yin, in Chinese religion; belief
of the modern Chinese concerning, 286.

Yaou, Chinese emperor who divided
China into four provinces, 298

Year symbols. in Mexican calendar, acatl,
tecpatl, calli and tochtli, 76; glyphs on
Copan stela or katun, 220; Maya name
for = Ah-cuch-haab, 220; in Mexican
Calendar-stone, 253: in Mexico, bunch
of grass or maize shoots ; in China, stalk
of wheat, 291.

Yoalticitl, mother of the gods in ancient
Mexico, 123.

Yop-at, Mava name for " a mitre." sym
bol of divine ruler, 118.

Yope oryopi. Mexican peaked headdress
or cone 117.

IN1>EX.

601

Yopico. name given to temple and mon-
a.-tery in courtyard of Great Temple
of Mexico. IKS '

Youal-teeuhtli, star-god mentioned by
Sahagun, identified as I'rsa Major,
279; name signifies. " lord of the night."
also •• Lord of the circle or wheel,'' 279.

Yuoalatuia = lord of the wheel, 71.

Yu, Chinese emperor; divisions of China,
292. 299.

Yucatan, cult of Polaris, 44: Mexican
culture-hero, Quetzalcoatl, came from,
67: social organization, older than
that of Mexico. 67 ; Twin-brothers
personifying the A hove and Below
68; serpent symbol, more ancient
than in Mexico, 7"; ancient map of,
>5-!iM; early peoples of, in contact
with those of Mississippi valley, 112;
traditions about Kuknlcan's journey to
Mexico, -20<;, traditions of tribes who
came from the south. -210-214; meeting
ground of Maya- and Nahuatl speaking
people. 214; riot cradle of Maya civili
zation, 214; ancient monuments of, 21(1;
fourfold divisions, 218, 494; Mayas
compared with Manias of India, 509,
519: ancient civilization, 528; ruder
forms of culture alongside of the per
fected social organization, 531; period
of warfare and pestilence, 539 (see
Chichen It/a, Mayapan, etc).

Yupanqui, founder of Cuzco, who intro
duced worship of the Creator, 135, 161;
186.

/amorra, Fray Geronimo Roman y, 275.

7 a rate, 150.

Zeller, Edward, 484.

Zenith, nepantla, 38.

Zigzag or undulated lines, symbol of
water, 126.

Zikkurats of Babylonia, seven-staged
towers, 327-331: oriented to the four
cardinal points, 332: together with
" Great basin of Apsu," formed image
of Cosmos, 361.

/ilan. Maya centre of female industry,
2(>8. note; name signified "embroi
dery," 210; stone monoliths, 216; an
cient centre of culture in Yucatan, 217.

Zip, glvph on Copan altar, 227.

Zmigrodski, 19.

Zodiac composed of twenty day-signs,
255; in Chinese calendar, 285.

Zumarraga, Bishop, 264.

Zuni, conception of Cor-mos, Above, Be
low, Centre and Four Quarters, 41, 100;
ceremonies typifying the fecundity
of the earth, etc., 101; vase used as
emblem of earth-mother, 105; cult of
Above and Below; swastika symbol in
use among; cult of Polaris; Zuni idol
compared with Mexcan lord of lire and
lord of the under world, 128, 129, 130;
twin brothers, war-gods, compared
with counterparts in Mexico and Yu
catan, 130; colors assigned to cardinal
points, 192; creation myth, 200, 223;
modern, ceremonies, symbols, etc.,
compared with those of Mexico, Cen
tral America and Peru, 200; Sky-father
and Earth-mother; Macaw or' winter
people, and Haven or slimmer people,
201; lingxiistic affinities with Nahuatl
and Maya, 201; myth about building
the town at the stable middle of the
earth, 202; social organization, 203, 205;
symbol of seeds of life, compared with
Mexico and Maya, 223; numerical di
visions, social organization, symbol
ism, etc., identical with that of Mexico,
Yucatan, Copan, Guatemala, Peru, etc.,
226,493; spider's web as image of nu
merical divisions; colors assigned to
four elements, compared with Mexico
and China, 293; use of quadruped to
symbolize cardinal points and divisions
of state compared with similar symbol
ism in Mexico and Central America,
295; the pueblo represents a " seven in
one," a counterpart of archaic king
doms in India, Persia, Babylonia,
Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc., 529.

NOTE.

I am indebted to the eminent Prof. Paul Haupt, of Johns Hopkins Tniversity, for
drawing my attention to the existence of an extremely important and interesting an
cient map of Babylonia on an unfortunately broken and mutilated clay tablet also in
scribed with cuneiform characters. This tablet is reproduced in photogravure and il
lustrated by a pencil drawing on pp. 100 and 101 of the Notes on "the Book of Ezekiel"
(translated by Prof. C. II. Toy), which froms Part 12 of the monumental polychrome
edition of the Bible, which is being edited by Prof. Paul Haupt, with the assistance of
Dr. Horace Howard Furness. Although designated as a "Babylonian map of the world"
it obviously represents Babylonia as a Middle Kingdom, traversed by the Euphrates
and containing Babylon, surrounded by other cities situated in the Euphratean valley.

602 NOTE.

Babylonia is enclosed in two large concentric circles representing the sea, designated
in a cuneiform inscription as the " Bitter stream " or " Salt water river." Triangles
extend beyond the outer circle, recalling the four " rays or spokes " of the image of
Shamash (tig. 65). Cuneiform characters, in one of these triangular spaces, designate
it as an island. Professor Toy states that "there seem to have been originally seven of
these triangles, but most of them are broken away." In point of fact only one of the
triangles is whole, and distinct traces of three others are preserved. As the mutilated
condition of the tablet forbids certainty as to the original number of triangles, I ven
ture to point out that it seems more likely that instead of seven there were originally
six triangles around the central disc and that the map of Babylonia constitutes an
image of a confederated state, like thos*e of India and Persia (see pp. 480 and 484),
conceived as formed of " six dependent and allied states surrounding the seventh
ruling state in the centre."

Referring the reader to p. 348 of this work where " the seven kings " of Babylon are
mentioned and seven-fold organization is discussed, 1 merely state that the impor
tance of the Babylonian map can scarcely be overrated as a proof of the application in
remote antiquity of the cosmical scheme to territorial divisions. It will be for Assyr-
iologists to determine for us the relative ages of the Sippara tablet (p. 332 and fig. 65,
1), and the Babylonian Map tablet and to define their respective connections with the
"four regions " and "seven directions," or with quadruplicate and seven-fold schemes
of organization. It is my hope that their researches will lead to definite knowledge
as to the date when these cosmical schemes were employed in the Euphratean
valley.

In conclusion I draw attention to the two interesting wheel-shaped maps of the
world also published in the "Notes on Ezekiel" (p. 105), and the remarkable diagram
(p. 197), showing the allotment of the land of Canaan according to Ezekiel. On p. 204,
in the Notes of Chapter 48 of Ezekiel, there are valuable details concerning the geo
graphical distribution of the tribes of Israel, and the position, in the centre, of the
sacred reservation and the symmetrical arrangement of the gates of Jerusalem, which
were associated with the cardinal points and tribal representatives.

Z. N.

PUBLICATIONS

OF THE

PEBBODY PIDSEDPI OF HPlERICfQI PCHHEOLBGY fHD ETHNOLOGY.

ARCH^lOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL
PAPERS. 8vo.

VOLUME 1.— Number 1. STANDARD OR HEAD-DRESS?— An his
torical essay on a relic of Ancient Mexico. By ZELIA NUTTALL. 52
pages and 3 colored plates. 1888. $1.00.

Number 2. THEKARANKAWA INDIANS, THE COAST PEOPLE
OF TEXAS.— By ALBERT &. GATSCHET, with notes by C. A. HAM
MOND and ALICE W OLIVKR, and a vocabulary obtained from Alice W.
Oliver. 104 pages with map, 1891. $1.00.

Number 8. THE ATLATL OR SPEAR-THROWER OF THE AN
CIENT MEXICANS.— By ZELIA NUTTALL. 36 pages and 3 plates.
1891. 50 cents.

Number 4. REPORT UPON PILE STRUCTURES IN NAAMAN'S
CREEK, NEAR CLAYMONT, DELAWARE.— By HILBORNE T. CRES-
SON. 24 pages and 10 illustrations. 1892 30 cents.
Number 5. A STUDY OF OMAHA INDIAN MUSIC; INCLUDING

TRANSCRIPTIONS OF 92 SONGS, WORDS AND MUSIC. — By ALICE C.

FLETCHER, aided by FRANCIS LA FLESCHE. With a Report on the
Structural Peculiarities of the Music, by JOHN COMFORT FILLMORE.
152 pages. 1893. $1.25.

Number 6. PREHISTORIC BURIAL PLACES IN MAINE.— By
C. C. WILLOUGHBY. 52 pages, 4 plates, 50 illustrations in text. 1898.
$1.00.

Number 7. [Completing volume I, to be printed.]
VOLUME II. — THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF OLD AND
NEW WORLD CIVILIZATIONS. —By ZELIA NUTTALL. 602 pages,

7 plates, 73 illustrations in text, and Index. 1901. $3.00.

MEMOIRS OP THE MUSEUM. 4to

VOLUME I.— Number 1. PREHISTORIC RUINS OF COPAN, HON
DURAS.— A Preliminary Report of the Explorations by the Museum,
1891-95. 48 pages. Large map, illustrations in text, and 8 plates.
1896. $1.50.

Number 2. EXPLORATIONS OF THE CAVE OF LOLTUN, YU
CATAN.— By E. H. THOMPSON. 22 pages. Illustrations in text, and

8 plates. 1897. $1.00.

Number 3: THE CHULTUNES OF LABNA.— By E. H.THOMPSON.
20 pages. Illustrations in text, and 13 plates. 1897. $1.25.
Number 4. RESEARCHES IN THE ULOA VALLEY.— By GEO.
BYRON GORDON. 44 pages. Illustrations in text, map and 12 plates.
1898.

Number 5. CAVERNS OF COPAN.— By GEORGE BYRON GOR
DON. 12 pages, map and 1 plate. 1898. Nos. 4 and 5 under one
cover, $1.50.

Number 6. [In preparation.]

%* Above prices are for copies in paper binding.
Regular subscribers will receive the publications as issued, at 20 per
cent less than specified price.

Address, F. W. PUTNAM, PEABODY MUSEUM,

Cambridge, Mass.

AGENTS FOE THE MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS :
Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly, London. Karl W. Hiersemann, Koenigsstrasse ."., Leipzig.

U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES

ANTHROPOLOGY LIBRARY
230 KIWEBEinlAU-MMffi

BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO RECM1

FORMNO.DD2

U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES

•V-

ROOM USF

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "The fundamental principles of Old and New world civilizations: a comparative research based on a study of the ancient Mexican religious, sociological and calendrical systems"

See other formats