Chapter 4

"The ordinary dress of the common people among the Chaldeans," says Canon Rawlison, in his work, the Five Great Monarchies, "seems to have consisted of a single garment, a short tunic tied round the waist, and reaching thence to the knees. To this may sometimes have been added an _abba_, or cloak, thrown over the shoulders; the material of the former we may perhaps presume to have been linen." The mural paintings at Chichen show that the Mayas sometimes used the same costume; and that dress is used to-day by the aborigines of Yucatan, and the inhabitants of the _Tierra de Guerra_. They were also bare-footed, and wore on the head a band of cloth, highly ornamented with mother-of-pearl instead of camel's hair, as the Chaldee. This band is to be seen in bas-relief at Chichen-Itza, inthe[TN-18] mural paintings, and on the head of the statue of Chaacmol. The higher classes wore a long robe extending from the neck to the feet, sometimes adorned with a fringe; it appears not to have been fastened to the waist, but kept in place by passing over one shoulder, a slit or hole being made for the arm on one side of the dress only. In some cases the upper part of the dress seems to have been detached from the lower, and to form a sort of jacket which reached about to the hips. We again see this identical dress portrayed in the mural paintings. The same description of ornaments were affected by the Chaldees and the Mayas--bracelets, earrings, armlets, anklets, made of the materials they could procure.

The Mayas at times, as can be seen from the slab discovered by Bresseur[TN-19] in Mayapan (an exact fac-simile of which cast, from a mould made by myself, is now in the rooms of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Mass.), as the primitive Chaldee, in their writings, made use of characters composed of straight lines only, inclosed in square or oblong figures; as we see from the inscriptions in what has been called hieratic form of writing found at Warka and Mugheir and the slab from Mayapan and others.

The Chaldees are said to have made use of three kinds of characters that Canon Rawlinson calls _letters proper_, _monograms_ and _determinative_. The Maya also, as we see from the monumental inscriptions, employed three kinds of characters--_letters proper_, _monograms_ and _pictorial_.

It may be said of the religion of the Mayas, as I have had occasion to remark, what the learned author of the Five Great Monarchies says of that of the primitive Chaldees: "The religion of the Chaldeans, from the very earliest times to which the monuments carry us back, was, in its outward aspect, a polytheism of a very elaborate character. It is quite possible that there may have been esoteric explanations, known to the priests and the more learned; which, resolving the personages of the Pantheon into the powers of nature, reconcile the apparent multiplicity of Gods with monotheism." I will now consider the names of the Chaldean deities in their turn of rotation as given us by the author above mentioned, and show you that the language of the American Mayas gives us an etymology of the whole of them, quite in accordance with their particular attributes.

RA.

The learned author places '_Ra_' at the head of the Pantheon, stating that the meaning of the word is simply _God_, or the God emphatically. We know that _Ra_ was the Sun among the Egyptians, and that the hieroglyph, a circle, representation of that God was the same in Babylon as in Egypt. It formed an element in the native name of Babylon. Which was _ka-ra_.

Now the Mayas called LA, that which has existed for ever, the truth _par excellence_. As to the native name of Babylon it would simply be the _city of the infinite truth_--_cah_, city; LA, eternal truth.

ANA OR DIS.

Ana, like Ra, is thought to have signified _God_ in the highest sense. Its etymology seems to be problematic. His epithets mark priority and antiquity; _the original chief_, the _father of the gods_, the _lord of darkness or death_. The Maya gives us A, _thy_; NA, _mother_. At times he was called DIS, and was the patron god of _Erech_, the great city of the dead, the necropolis of Lower Babylonia. TIX, Maya is a cavity formed in the earth. It seems to have given its name to the city of _Niffer_, called _Calneh_ in the translation of the Septuagint, from _kal-ana_, which is translated the "fort of Ana;" or according to the Maya, the _prison of Ana_, KAL being prison, or the prison of thy mother.

ANATA

the supposed wife of Ana, has no peculiar characteristics. Her name is only, says our author, the feminine form of the masculine, Ana. But the Maya designates her as the companion of Ana; TA, with; _Anata_ with _Ana_.

BIL OR ENU

seems to mean merely Lord. It is usually followed by a qualificative adjunct, possessing great interest, NIPRU. To that name, which recalls that of NEBROTH or _Nimrod_, the author gives a Syriac etymology; napar (make to flee). His epithets are the _supreme_, _the father of the gods_, the _procreator_.

The Maya gives us BIL, or _Bel_; the way, the road; hence the _origin_, the father, the procreator. Also ENA, who is before; again the father, the procreator.

As to the qualificative adjunct _nipru_. It would seem to be the Maya _niblu_; _nib_, to thank; LU, the _Bagre_, a _silurus fish_. _Niblu_ would then be the _thanksgiving fish_. Strange to say, the high priest at Uxmal and Chichen, elder brother of Chaacmol, first son of _Can_, the founder of those cities, is CAY, the fish, whose effigy is my last discovery in June, among the ruins of Uxmal. The bust is contained within the jaws of a serpent, _Can_, and over it, is a beautiful mastodon head, with the trunk inscribed with Egyptian characters, which read TZAA, that which is necessary.

BELTIS

is the wife of _Bel-nipru_. But she is more than his mere female power. She is a separate and important deity. Her common title is the _Great Goddess_. In Chaldea her name was _Mulita_ or _Enuta_, both words signifying the lady. Her favorite title was the _mother of the gods_, the origin of the gods.

In Maya BEL is the road, the way; and TE means _here_. BELTÉ or BELTIS would be I am the way, the origin.

_Mulita_ would correspond to MUL-TE, many here, _many in me_. I am the mother of many. Her other name _Enuta_ seems to be (Maya) _Ena-te_, signifies ENA, the first, before anybody, and TE here. ENATÉ, _I am here before anybody_, I am the mother of the Gods.

HEA OR HOA.

The God Fish, the mystic animal, half man, half fish, which came up from the Persian gulf to teach astronomy and letters to the first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris.

According to Berosus the civilization was brought to Mesopotamia by _Oannes_ and six other beings, who, like himself, were half man, half fish, and that they came from the Indian Ocean. We have already seen that the Mayas of India were not only architects, but also astronomers; and the symbolic figure of a being half man and half fish seems to clearly indicate that those who brought civilization to the shores of the Euphrates and Tigris came in boats.

Hoa-Ana, or Oannes, according to the Maya would mean, he who has his residence or house on the water. HA, being water; _a_, thy; _ná_, house; literally, _water thy house_. Canon Rawlison remarks in that connection: "There are very strong grounds for connecting HEA or Hoa, with the serpent of the Scripture, and the paradisaical traditions of the tree of knowledge and the tree of life." As the title of the god of knowledge and science, _Oannes_, is the lord of the abyss, or of the great deep, the intelligent fish, one of his emblems being the serpent, CAN, which occupies so conspicuous a place among the symbols of the gods on the black stones recording benefactions.

DAV-KINA

Is the wife of _Hoa_, and her name is thought to signify the chief lady. But the Maya again gives us another meaning that seems to me more appropriate. TAB-KIN would be the _rays of the sun_: the rays of the light brought with civilization by her husband to benighted inhabitants of Mesopotamia.

SIN OR HURKI

is the name of the moon deity; the etymology of it is quite uncertain. Its titles, as Rawlison remarks, are somewhat vague. Yet it is particularly designated as "_the bright_, _the shining_" the lord of the month.

Zin in Maya has also many significations. Zin is to stretch, to extend. _Zinil_ is the extension of the whole of the universe. _Hurki_ would be the Maya HULKIN--sun-stroked; he who receives directly the rays of the sun. Hurki is also the god presiding over buildings and architecture; in this connection he is called _Bel-Zuna_. The _lord of building_, the _supporting architect_, the _strengthener of fortifications_. _Bel-Zuna_ would also signify the lord of the strong house. _Zuú_, Maya, close, thick. _Na_, house: and the city where he had his great temple was _Ur_; named after him. _U_, in Maya, signifies moon.

SAN OR SANSI,

the Sun God, the _lord of fire_, the _ruler of the day_. He _who illumines the expanse of heaven and earth_.

_Zamal_ (Maya) is the morning, the dawn of the day, and his symbols are the same on the temples of Yucatan as on those of Chaldea, India and Egypt.

VUL OR IVA,

the prince of the powers of the air, the lord of the whirlwind and the tempest, the wielder of the thunderbolt, the lord of the air, he who makes the tempest to rage. Hiba in Maya is to rub, to scour, to chafe as does the tempest. As VUL he is represented with a flaming sword in his hand. _Hul_ (Maya) an arrow. He is then the god of the atmosphere, who gives rain.

ISHTAR OR NANA,

the Chaldean Venus, of the etymology of whose name no satisfactory account can be given, says the learned author, whose list I am following and description quoting.

The Maya language, however, affords a very natural etymology. Her name seems composed of _ix_, the feminine article, _she_; and of _tac_, or _tal_, a verb that signifies to have a desire to satisfy a corporal want or inclination. IXTAL would, therefore, be she who desires to satisfy a corporal inclination. As to her other name, _Nana_, it simply means the great mother, the very mother. If from the names of god and goddesses, we pass to that of places, we will find that the Maya language also furnishes a perfect etymology for them.

In the account of the creation of the world, according to the Chaldeans, we find that a woman whose name in Chaldee is _Thalatth_, was said to have ruled over the monstrous animals of strange forms, that were generated and existed in darkness and water. The Greek called her _Thalassa_ (the sea). But the Maya vocable _Thallac_, signifies a thing without steadiness, like the sea.

URUKH.

The first king of the Chaldees was a great architect. To him are ascribed the most archaic monuments of the plains of Lower Mesopotamia. He is said to have conceived the plans of the Babylonian Temple. He constructed his edifices of mud and bricks, with rectangular bases, their angles fronting the cardinal points; receding stages, exterior staircases, with shrines crowning the whole structure. In this description of the primitive constructions of the Chaldeans, no one can fail to recognize the Maya mode of building, and we see them not only in Yucatan, but throughout Central America, Peru, even Hindoostan. The very name _Urkuh_ seems composed of two Maya words HUK, to make everything, and LUK, mud; he who makes everything of mud; so significative of his building propensities and of the materials used by him.

ASSYRIA.

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

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

A strange coincidence that may be without significance, but is not out of place to mention here, is the fact that the early kings of Chaldea are represented on the monuments as sovereigns over the _Kiprat-arbat_, or FOUR RACES. While tradition tells us that the great lord of the universe, king of the giants, whose capital was _Tiahuanaco_, the magnificent ruins of which are still to be seen on the shores of the lake of Titicaca, reigned over _Ttahuatyn-suyu_, the FOUR PROVINCES. In the _Chou-King_ we read that in very remote times _China_ was called by its inhabitants _Sse-yo_, THE FOUR PARTS OF THE EMPIRE. The _Manava-Dharma-Sastra_, the _Ramayana_, and other sacred books of Hindostan also inform us that the ancient Hindoos designated their country as the FOUR MOUNTAINS, and from some of the monumental inscriptions at Uxmal it would seem that, among other names, that place was called the land of the _canchi_, or FOUR MOUTHS, that recalls vividly the name of Chaldea _Arba-Lisun_, the FOUR TONGUES.

That the language of the Mayas was known in Chaldea in remote ages, but became lost in the course of time, is evident from the Book of Daniel. It seems that some of the learned men of Judea understood it still at the beginning of the Christian era, as many to-day understand Greek, Latin, Sanscrit, &c.; since, we are informed by the writers of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, that the last words of Jesus of Nazareth expiring on the cross were uttered in it.

In the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel, we read that the fingers of the hand of a man were seen writing on the wall of the hall, where King Belshazzar was banqueting, the words "Mene, mene, Tekel, upharsin," which could not be read by any of the wise men summoned by order of the king. Daniel, however, being brought in, is said to have given as their interpretation: _Numbered_, _numbered_, _weighed_, _dividing_, perhaps with the help of the angel Gabriel, who is said by learned rabbins to be the only individual of the angelic hosts who can speak Chaldean and Syriac, and had once before assisted him in interpreting the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. Perhaps also, having been taught the learning of the Chaldeans, he had studied the ancient Chaldee language, and was thus enabled to read the fatidical words, which have the very same meaning in the Maya language as he gave them. Effectively, _mene_ or _mane_, _numbered_, would seem to correspond to the Maya verbs, MAN, to buy, to purchase, hence to number, things being sold by the quantity--or MANEL, to pass, to exceed. _Tekel_, weighed, would correspond to TEC, light. To-day it is used in the sense of lightness in motion, brevity, nimbleness: and _Upharsin_, dividing, seem allied to the words PPA, to divide two things united; or _uppah_, to break, making a sharp sound; or _paah_, to break edifices; or, again, PAALTAL, to break, to scatter the inhabitants of a place.

As to the last words of Jesus of Nazareth, when expiring on the cross, as reported by the Evangelists, _Eli, Eli_, according to St. Matthew, and _Eloi, Eloi_, according to St. Mark, _lama sabachthani_, they are pure Maya vocables; but have a very different meaning to that attributed to them, and more in accordance with His character. By placing in the mouth of the dying martyr these words: _My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?_ they have done him an injustice, presenting him in his last moments despairing and cowardly, traits so foreign to his life, to his teachings, to the resignation shown by him during his trial, and to the fortitude displayed by him in his last journey to Calvary; more than all, so unbecoming, not to say absurd, being in glaring contradiction to his role as God. If God himself, why complain that God has forsaken him? He evidently did not speak Hebrew in dying, since his two mentioned biographers inform us that the people around him did not understand what he said, and supposed he was calling Elias to help him: _This man calleth for Elias._

His bosom friend, who never abandoned him--who stood to the last at the foot of the cross, with his mother and other friends and relatives, do not report such unbefitting words as having been uttered by Jesus. He simply says, that after recommending his mother to his care, he complained of being thirsty, and that, as the sponge saturated with vinegar was applied to his mouth, he merely said: IT IS FINISHED! and _he bowed his head and gave up the ghost_. (St. John, chap. xix., v. 30.)

Well, this is exactly the meaning of the Maya words, HELO, HELO, LAMAH ZABAC TA NI, literally: HELO, HELO, now, now; LAMAH, sinking; ZABAC, black ink; TA, over; NI, nose; in our language: _Now, now I am sinking; darkness covers my face!_ No weakness, no despair--He merely tells his friends all is over. _It is finished!_ and expires.

Before leaving Asia Minor, in order to seek in Egypt the vestiges of the Mayas, I will mention the fact that the names of some of the natives who inhabited of old that part of the Asiatic continent, and many of those of places and cities seem to be of American Maya origin. The Promised Land, for example--that part of the coast of Phoenicia so famous for the fertility of its soil, where the Hebrews, after journeying during forty years in the desert, arrived at last, tired and exhausted from so many hard-fought battles--was known as _Canaan_. This is a Maya word that means to be tired, to be fatigued; and, if it is spelled _Kanaan_, it then signifies abundance; both significations applying well to the country.

TYRE, the great emporium of the Phoenicians, called _Tzur_, probably on account of being built on a rock, may also derive its name from the Maya TZUC, a promontory, or a number of villages, _Tzucub_ being a province.

Again, we have the people called _Khati_ by the Egyptians. They formed a great nation that inhabited the _Cæle-Syria_ and the valley of the Orontes, where they have left very interesting proofs of their passage on earth, in large and populous cities whose ruins have been lately discovered. Their origin is unknown, and is yet a problem to be solved. They are celebrated on account of their wars against the Assyrians and Egyptians, who call them the plague of Khati. Their name is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures as Hittites. Placed on the road, between the Assyrians and the Egyptians, by whom they were at last vanquished, they placed well nigh insuperable _obstacles in the way_ of the conquests of these two powerful nations, which found in them tenacious and fearful adversaries. The Khati had not only made considerable improvements in all military arts, but were also great and famed merchants; their emporium _Carchemish_ had no less importance than Tyre or Carthage. There, met merchants from all parts of the world; who brought thither the products and manufactures of their respective countries, and were wont to worship at the Sacred City, _Katish_ of the Khati. The etymology of their name is also unknown. Some historians having pretended that they were a Scythian tribe, derived it from Scythia; but I think that we may find it very natural, as that of their principal cities, in the Maya language.

All admit that the Khati, until the time when they were vanquished by Rameses the Great, as recorded on the walls of his palace at Thebes, the _Memnonium_, always placed obstacles on the way of the Egyptians and opposed them. According to the Maya, their name is significative of these facts, since KAT or KATAH is a verb that means to place impediments on the road, to come forth and obstruct the passage.

_Carchemish_ was their great emporium, where merchants from afar congregated; it was consequently a city of merchants. CAH means a city, and _Chemul_ is navigator. _Carchemish_ would then be _cah-chemul_, the city of navigators, of merchants.

KATISH, their sacred city, would be the city where sacrifices are offered. CAH, city, and TICH, a ceremony practiced by the ancient Mayas, and still performed by their descendants all through Central America. This sacrifice or ceremony consists in presenting to BALAM, the _Yumil-Kaax_, the "Lord of the fields," the _primitiæ_ of all their fruits before beginning the harvest. Katish, or _cah-tich_ would then be the city of the sacrifices--the holy city.

EGYPT is the country that in historical times has called, more than any other, the attention of the students, of all nations and in all ages, on account of the grandeur and beauty of its monuments; the peculiarity of its inhabitants; their advanced civilization, their great attainments in all branches of human knowledge and industry; and its important position at the head of all other nations of antiquity. Egypt has been said to be the source from which human knowledge began to flow over the old world: yet no one knows for a certainty whence came the people that laid the first foundations of that interesting nation. That they were not autochthones is certain. Their learned priests pointed towards the regions of the West as the birth-place of their ancestors, and designated the country in which they lived, the East, as the _pure land_, the _land of the sun_, of _light_, in contradistinction of the country of the dead, of darkness--the Amenti, the West--where Osiris sat as King, reigning judge, over the souls.

If in Hindostan, Afghanistan, Chaldea, Asia Minor, we have met with vestiges of the Mayas, in Egypt we will find their traces everywhere. Whatever may have been the name given to the valley watered by the Nile by its primitive inhabitants, no one at present knows. The invaders that came from the West called it CHEM: not on account of the black color of the soil, as Plutarch pretends in his work, "_De Iside et Osiride_," but more likely because either they came to it in boats; or, quite probably, because when they arrived the country was inundated, and the inhabitants communicated by means of boats, causing the new comers to call it the country of boats--CHEM (maya).[TN-20] The hieroglyph representing the name of Egypt is composed of the character used for land, a cross circumscribed by a circle, and of another, read K, which represent a sieve, it is said, but that may likewise be the picture of a small boat. The Assyrians designated Egypt under the names of MISIR or MISUR, probably because the country is generally destitute of trees. These are uprooted during the inundations, and then carried by the currents all over the country; so that the farmers, in order to be able to plow the soil, are obliged to clear it first from the dead trees. Now we have the Maya verb MIZ--to _clean_, to _remove rubbish formed by the body of dead trees_; whilst the verb MUSUR means to _cut the trees by the roots_. It would seem that the name _Mizraim_ given to Egypt in the Scriptures also might come from these words.