between the two American Mediterraneans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, represented in the Maya writings by a sign similar to our numerical 8.1 Diego de Cogolludo in his history of Yucatan informs us that up to A. D. 1517, when the Spaniards for the first time invaded that country, the land of the Mayas was still designated as "the great serpent" and "the tree. "2

The Maya colonists therefore called their new settlement on the banks of the Nile the "land of the serpent" and also the "land of the tree." The Egyptian hierogrammatists represented their country as a serpent with inflated breast, standing on a figure 8, under which is

breast
dress

some

3

a sieve, called Mayab in Maya; sometimes also as a serpent with inflated and wings, wearing a headidentical with that worn by of the magnates pictured in the bas-reliefs at Chichen. They likewise symbolized Egypt as a tree believed to be the Persea, sacred to the goddess Athor, whose fruit in the sculptures resembles a human heart, which vividly recalls the on of the Mayas, that bears the alligator pear-the Laurus persea of Linnæus, so abundant in tropical America.

X

Can it be that all these are mere coincidences? If they be, then let us present more of them.

The river, spread as it was over the land, they designated as Hapimil, which in aftertimes was corrupted into Hapi

1

2

Aug. Le Plongeon, Sacred Mysteries, p. 120, et passim.

Cogolludo, Hist. de Yucathan, lib. i., cap. i.

Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, vol. iii., p. 199.

Ibid., p. 200.

Ibid., p. 119.

mau. It is a word composed of two Maya primitives—ha, "water," and pim, "the thickness of flat surfaces;" hence the "thickness," the "depth of water." The desinence il is used as a suffix to nouns to denote usage, custom, or a thing having existed previously. This accords precisely with the signification given to the name Hapimau of the Nile, by Egyptian scholars, the "abyss of water."

1

Herodotus tells us that "anciently the whole of Egypt, with the exception of the nome of Thebes, was a marshy swamp."

The name Thebes, of the capital of Upper Egypt, was Taba among the natives. the natives. That word seems to be allied to the Maya vocable tepal, "to govern," "to reign," which, as a noun, is equivalent to "majesty," "king," the "head of the nation."

As to Memphis, the capital of Lower Egypt, its sacred name, we are informed by M. Birch, was Hakaptah, which is a word composed of two Maya vocables-ha, “water,” and kaptah, past participle of the verb kaapal, "to place in a hole." The name of the city would then signify that it was built in a hole made by water; very appropriate indeed, since we are told that King Menes, the founder of Memphis, having diverted the course of the Nile, built the city in the bed of the ancient channel in which it flowed.

The very name of King Menes may be a mere surname commemorative of his doings, since the Maya word men means "wise man," "legislator," "builder," "architect," every one of these epithets being applicable to him.

Although the limits of this book allow but little space to adduce more proofs of the Maya origin of the names of places 'Herodotus, lib. ii., iv.

-which would be, after all, but cumulative evidence, for which the reader is referred to my larger work, "The Monuments of Mayach and their Historical Teachings "-I cannot resist the temptation to mention the name of the Governing Spirit of the universe, that of the Creator, and of the deities that represented His attributes to Egyptian minds; also giving the Maya ety-. mology of these names. In order that it cannot be argued that they are mere coincidences, I will next present the tableau of creation as it still exists on the east façade of the palace at Chichen, where we have soon to return and pursue our study of the Memorial Hall dedicated to Prince, Coh by his sisterwife Queen Móo.

Chnoumis, or Noum, was said to be the "vivifying spirit," the "cause of life in animals," the "father of all that has life;" therefore, the abundant source from which all things emanate. This is the exact meaning of the Maya particle num in composition with another word. Amen-num, or x-num, means the "architect," the "builder of all things a, contraction of ah, "the;" men, "architect," "builder," "wise man," "legislator;" num, or x-num, “ multiplicity," "abundance of things.

66

Kneph was another name for X-noum, who was also called Amen-Kneph. Horapollo says: Horapollo says: "The snake is the emblem of the spirit which pervades the universe." So also we learn from Eusebius, who tells us that the Egyptians called Kneph the "good genius," and represented him under the shape of a serpent. In the ancient monuments the god

1 Eusebius, Præp. et Demons. Evang., lib. iii., chap. xi., p. 215. Diodorus Siculus, Hist., lib. i. 12.

"Pedro Beltran, Arte del Idioma Maya.

'Horapollo, Hieroglyphs, lib. ii.

Eusebius, Præp., Evang., lib. iii., chap. xi. Vigiers, Paris, 1628.