In Egypt, likewise, they sculptured on the lid of the coffin, or fastened on it, a cast of the features of the person whose remains it contained.

After clearing from the altar the débris of the roof of the portico, that in falling had not only injured, but so completely buried it that it had escaped the notice of John L. Stephens and others who had visited the spot before us, we found that the atlantes and the bas-reliefs that adorned the upper side and the edges of the table had been brilliantly colored. The pigments used by the Maya artists were of such lasting nature that the colors were actually as bright as when they were laid on; and the vehicle or menstruum in which they were dissolved had deeply penetrated the stone without injuring the surface. Here was the confirmation of a very interesting fact that we had already discovered that the Mayas, like the Hindoos,1 the Chaldees, the Egyptians, and the Greeks, colored their sculptures and statues, and provided them with eyes and nails made of shell. Shall it be said that this is a mere coincidence, or shall we regard it as a custom transmitted from one nation to another; or, again, taught to the rest by the people who introduced among them the sculptor's art?

1

2

Bishop Heber in his Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, vol. i., p. 386; vol. ii., pp. 430, 525, 530; vol. iii., pp. 48-49. 2 Henry Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii., part ii., chap. iii. Eusebius, Præp. et Demons. Evang., lib. iii., chap. xi. See Appendix,

note x.

IX.

THE state of perfect preservation of the colors again reveals to us several most interesting facts, that come to add the weight of their evidence to the many other proofs we have already adduced, to show that, in remote ages, the Mayas entertained intimate relations with the other civilized nations of Asia, Africa, and Europe. From these we learn that, for instance, yellow was the distinctive color of the royal family, as red was that of nobility; and that blue was used in Mayach, as in Egypt and Chaldea, at funerals, in token of mourning, as it still is in Bokhara and other Asiatic countries.

2

Had the Maya sages, and the ancient philosophers in Chaldea and Egypt, found out what is well known to those who,

1 Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, vol. iii., chap. xvi., p.

442, et passim.

Henry Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 375–557.

2

3

Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh, p. 74.

in our day, have made a study of the effect produced by colors on the nervous system of man and animals-that blue induces sadness and melancholy? Blue, from the color of the vault of heaven, was typical of holiness, sanctity, chastity, hence of happiness; it was then worn in Mayach, Egypt, and Chaldea during the period of mourning, in token of the felicity the soul, free from the trammels of matter and the probations of earthly life, was enjoying in realms beyond the grave. They believed that all things existed forever; that to cease to be on the earth was only to assume another form somewhere else in the universe, where dwelt the spirits of the justified—the maxeru of the Egyptians, that, translated in Maya, xma-xelel, means without tears, ""whole." Landa tells us that, to the time of the Spanish conquest, the bodies of the individuals who offered themselves, or were offered, as propitiatory victims to Divinity, as well as the altars on which they were immolated, were painted blue, and held holy. We have seen these victims, painted blue, represented in the ancient fresco paintings. The image of Mehen, the engendered, that ancestor of all beings, seated in the cosmic egg, was painted blue; so was the effigy of the god Kneph, the Creator, in Egypt; and the gods, the boats, the shrines, carried in the funeral processions, were likewise painted blue.3 In Hindostan, the god Vishnu, seated on the mighty seven-headed serpent Caisha, the Ah-acchapat of the Mayas, is painted blue, to signify his exalted and heavenly nature. The plumes worn on the heads of the

'Landa, Las Cosas de Yucatan, chap. xxviii., p. 166.

"Y llegado el dia, juntavanse en el patio del templo, y si avia de ser sacrificado a saetadas, desnudavanle en cueros y untavan el cuerpo de azul," etc.

'Eusebius, Præp. et Demons. Evang., lib. iii., chap. xi., p. 215.

Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, vol. ii., c. xiii., p. 400.

1

kings and queens of the Mayas, for the same reason, were blue, the king being the vicegerent and vicar of Deity on earth. The ceremonial mantle of the highpriest was made of blue and yellow feathers, to indicate that in his office he partook both of the divine and the kingly.

In another work I have treated at length of the meaning which the Mayas attached to colors. The limits of this book do not allow for lengthy explanations on this subject; but a few words must be said about yellow and red, colors which have been held by all civilized nations of antiquity as distinctive of royalty and nobility of race.

The unearthing of the altar at the entrance of Prince Coh's funeral chamber has revealed the fact that among the Mayas yellow was the distinctive color of the royal family.

It is well known that throughout China the emperor and his family are the only persons allowed to wear yellow garments. Red is the other color set apart for the particular use of the imperial family."

2

In the islands of the Pacific, the Sandwich Islands especially, yellow was likewise the distinctive color of royalty. The king alone had the right to wear a cloak made of yellow feathers.3 "The cloaks of the other chiefs were adorned with red and yellow rhomboidal figures, intermingled or disposed in alternate lines, with sometimes a section of dark purple or glossy black."

In Thibet, the dress of the lamas consists of a long yellow robe, fastened by a red girdle, and a yellow cap surmounted by 'Is this the reason why the Egyptians also placed feathers alike on the heads of their gods and their kings?

'Memoir of Father Ripa, p. 71.

"Thirteen Years' Residence at the Court of Pekin." Marco Polo Travels, by Hugh Murray, in 1250, p. 74. 'William Ellis, Polynesian Researches, vol. iv., chap. vi., p. 119.

a red rosette.1 The king of the lamas, the Guison-Tamba, when he travels, is carried in a yellow palanquin.2

In India, yellow and red are colors used in the worship of the gods. Yellow is set apart for Vishnu and Krishna and their wives. Widows who immolate themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands, in the Suttee ceremony, have their bodies painted yellow with an infusion of sandalwood and saffron. Yellow is likewise the color of the dress of the bonzes in Laos, Indo-China; and the priests officiating at the funerals of Siamese kings wear yellow robes.

Among Christians, even, yellow is the distinctive color of the Pontiff, whose seat is in the Solar City. The papal banner is white and yellow. Several learned writers, whose opinion is authority on all matters pertaining to customs and manners of the ancient civilized inhabitants of Asia and Africa, in trying to account for the selection of yellow as distinctive color for the kings, pontiffs, and priests officiating at funerals of kings, have suggested that, as the emperors of China, like the kings in India, Chaldea, Egypt, and other countries, styled themselves "Children of the Sun," it was but natural that they should select for color of their own garments that of their father the Sun, and to make it the mark of their exalted rank, and the privilege of their family.

'M. Huc, Recollections of a Journey through Tartary, Thibet, and China, vol. i., chap. i., p. 22.

'Abbé Dubois, Description of the Manners of the People of India, pp. 240-243.

Cartaud de la Villate, Critical Thoughts on Mathematics (vol. i., Paris, 1752), says: “The Cardinal Dailly and Albert the Great, Bishop of Ratisbonne, distribute the planets among the religions. To the Christians they assign the Sun. This is the reason why they hold the Sun in great veneration, and why the city of Rome is styled the Solar City, and the cardinals wear dress of a red color, this being that of the Sun."