The young queen refuses the offer. The refusal is indicated. by the direction of the scroll issuing from her mouth. It is turned backward, instead of forward toward the priest as would be the case if she assented to the marriage.

The H-men explains that Móo, being a daughter of the royal family, by law and custom must marry one of her brothers. The youth listens to the decision with due respect for the priest, as shown by his arm being placed across his breast, the left hand resting on the right shoulder. He does not accept the refusal in a meek spirit, however. His clinched fist, his foot raised, as if in the act of stamping, betoken anger and disappointment, while the attendant behind him expostulates, counselling patience and resignation, judging by the position and expression of her extended left hand, palm upward. Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians observed the customs of their ancestors and did not adopt new ones. Among them there were two tokens of respect used by inferiors in the presence of their superiors. They are remarkable enough to arrest the attention of any one inquiring into their manners and customs.

2

One consisted in placing an arm across the chest, the hand resting on the opposite shoulder; the other, in putting the forearm, the right generally, across the chest-the hand, with closed fingers, being over the heart.3 (Plate XLI.)

1

'It was the law among the Mayas, that, in order to preserve the royal blood from admixture and contamination, the girls should marry their brothers. The same custom obtained in Egypt, Chaldea, Greece, and many other places from the remotest antiquity. The gods even observed the practice. We are told that Jupiter married his sister Juno. In Peru and other countries of the Western Continent, royal brothers wedded their royal sisters.

2 Herodotus, Hist., lib. ii., lxxix.

'Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, illust.

From the remotest antiquity, if we are to judge by the fresco paintings in the funeral chamber and the illustrations in the Troano MS., the same marks of respect obtained among the Mayas, and were in vogue still at the time of the conquest of Yucatan by the Spaniards, according to Father Cogolludo.1 The Mayas usually placed the left arm across the chest, letting the left hand rest on the right shoulder.

The natives of Yucatan, British Honduras, Peten, and the countries bordering on Guatemala still use these signs, among themselves, when their white neighbors are not present. (Plates XLII.-XLIII.) Before their white superiors they either stand erect, hat in hand, their arms hanging by their sides, as is customary with soldiers in presence of their officers; or with both arms crossed over their chest.

3

4

Can this similarity of signs of respect, common to both Mayas and Egyptians, be a simple coincidence? If so, then what of the identity of the dress of the Egyptian and the Maya laborers; 2 of the gifts of cloaks to the victors in athletic games in Egypt and Mayach; of the great respect professed for their elders by the Egyptians 5 and the Mayas; of their carrying children astride the hip; of their hatred of foreigners; of the year beginning on about the same day (corresponding to the middle of our month of July) in Egypt as

1

8

7

Diego de Cogolludo, Hist. de Yucathan, lib. ix., cap. viii.,

6

p. 489.

2 Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, etc., vol. ii., chap. x., p. 323. Hero

dotus, Hist., lib. ii., lxxxi.

Ibid., xci.

4 Herrera.

Herodotus, Hist., lib. ii., lxxx.

Landa, Las Cosas de Yucatan, 2 xxx., p. 178.

Ibid., 2 xx., p. 112.

Appendix, note xvi.

Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, vol. ii., p. 334.

Herodotus, lib. ii., xli., xcì.