Antediluvian world

by Ignatius Donnelly

  never behold her lord undressed.

  containing twelve most

  The immortals, however, wishing

  beautiful maidens, who, on

  Urvasi back in heaven, contrived

  reaching the earth, forthwith

  to steal the rams; and, as the

  set themselves to dance. He

  king pursued the robbers with his

  tried to catch the youngest,

  sword in the dark, the lightning

  but in vain; ultimately he

  revealed his person, the compact

  succeeded by assuming the

  was broken, and Urvasi

  disguise of a mouse. He was

  disappeared. This same story is

  very attentive to his new wife,

  found in different forms among

  who was really a daughter of

  many people of Aryan and Turanian

  one of the stars, but she

  descent, the central idea being

  wished to return home, so she

  that of a man marrying some one

  made a wicker basket secretly,

  of an aerial or aquatic origin,

  and, by help of a charm she

  and living happily with her till

  remembered, ascended to her

  he breaks the condition on which

  father.

  her residence with him depends,

  stories exactly parallel to that

  of Raymond of Toulouse, who

  chances in the hunt upon the

  beautiful Melusina at a fountain,

  and lives with her happily until

  he discovers her fish-nature and

  she vanishes.

  ----------------------------------+

  If the legend of Cadmus recovering Europa, after she has been carried away by the white bull, the spotless cloud, means that “the sun must journey westward until he sees again the beautiful tints which greeted his eyes in the morning,” it is curious to find a story current in North America to the effect that a man once had a beautiful daughter, ‘whom he forbade to leave the lodge lest she should be carried off by the king of the buffaloes; and that as she sat, notwithstanding, outside the house combing her hair, “all of a sudden the king of the buffaloes came dashing on, with his herd of followers, and, taking her between his horns, away be cantered over plains, plunged into a river which bounded his land, and carried her safely to his lodge on the other side,” whence she was finally recovered by her father.

  Games.—The same games and sports extended from India to the shores of Lake Superior. The game of the Hindoos, called pachisi, is played upon a cross-shaped board or cloth; it is a combination of checkers and draughts, with the throwing of dice, the dice determining the number of moves; when the Spaniards entered Mexico they found the Aztecs playing a game called patolli, identical with the Hindoo pachisi, on a similar cross-shaped board. The game of ball, which the Indians of America were in the habit of playing at the time of the discovery of the country, from California to the Atlantic, was identical with the European chueca, crosse, or hockey.

  One may well pause, after reading this catalogue, and ask himself, wherein do these peoples differ? It is absurd to pretend that all these similarities could have been the result of accidental coincidences.

  These two peoples, separated by the great ocean, were baptized alike in infancy with blessed water; they prayed alike to the gods; they worshipped together the sun, moon, and stars; they confessed their sins alike; they were instructed alike by an established priesthood; they were married in the same way and by the joining of hands; they armed themselves with the same weapons; when children came, the man, on both continents, went to bed and left his wife to do the honors of the household; they tattooed and painted themselves in the same fashion; they became intoxicated on kindred drinks; their dresses were alike; they cooked in the same manner; they used the same metals; they employed the same exorcisms and bleedings for disease; they believed alike in ghosts, demons, and fairies; they listened to the same stories; they played the same games; they used the same musical instruments; they danced the same dances, and when they died they were embalmed in the same way and buried sitting; while over them were erected, on both continents, the same mounds, pyramids, obelisks, and temples. And yet we are asked to believe that there was no relationship between them, and that they had never had any ante-Columbian intercourse with each other.

  If our knowledge of Atlantis was more thorough, it would no doubt appear that, in every instance wherein the people of Europe accord with the people of America, they were both in accord with the people of Atlantis; and that Atlantis was the common centre from which both peoples derived their arts, sciences, customs, and opinions. It will be seen that in every case where Plato gives us any information in this respect as to Atlantis, we find this agreement to exist. It existed in architecture, sculpture, navigation, engraving, writing, an established priesthood, the mode of worship, agriculture, the construction of roads and canals; and it is reasonable to suppose that the, same correspondence extended down to all the minor details treated of in this chapter.

  CHAPTER III.

  AMERICAN EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE OR ATLANTIS.

  1. ON the monuments of Central America there are representations of bearded men. How could the beardless American Indians have imagined a bearded race?

  2. All the traditions of the civilized races of Central America point to an Eastern origin.

  The leader and civilizer of the Nahua family was Quetzalcoatl. This is the legend respecting him:

  “From the distant East, from the fabulous Hue Hue Tlapalan, this mysterious person came to Tula, and became the patron god and high-priest of the ancestors of the Toltecs. He is described as having been a white man, with strong formation of body, broad forehead, large eyes, and flowing beard. He wore a mitre on his head, and was dressed in a long white robe reaching to his feet, and covered with red crosses. In his hand he held a sickle. His habits were ascetic, he never married, was most chaste and pure in life, and is said to have endured penance in a neighboring mountain, not for its effects upon himself, but as a warning to others. He condemned sacrifices, except of fruits and flowers, and was known as the god of peace; for, when addressed on the subject of war, he is reported to have stopped his ears with his fingers.” (“North Amer. of Antiq.,” p. 268.) “He was skilled in many arts: he invented” (that is, imported) “gem-cutting and metal-casting; he originated letters, and invented the Mexican calendar. He finally returned to the land in the East from which he came: leaving the American coast at Vera Cruz, he embarked in a canoe made of serpent-skins, and ‘sailed away into the east.’” (Ibid., p. 271.) Dr. Le Plongeon says of the columns at Chichen: “The base is formed by the head of Cukulcan, the shaft of the body of the serpent, with its feathers beautifully carved to the very chapiter.

  On the chapiters of the columns that support the portico, at the entrance of the castle in Chichen Itza, may be seen the carved figures of long-bearded men, with upraised hands, in the act of worshipping sacred trees. They forcibly recall to mind the same worship in Assyria.”

  In the accompanying cut of an ancient vase from Tula, we see a bearded figure grasping a beardless man.

  In the cut given below we see a face that might be duplicated among the old men of any part of Europe.

  The Cakchiquel MS. says: “Four persons came from Tulan, from the direction of the rising sun—that is one Tulan. There is another Tulan in Xibalbay, and another where the sun sets, and it is there that we came; and in the direction of the setting sun there is another, where is the god; so that there are four Tulans; and it is where the sun sets that we came to Tulan, from the other side of the sea, where this Tulan is; and it is there that we were conceived and begotten by our mothers and fathers.”

  That is to say, the birthplace of the race was in the East, across the sea, at a place called Tulan and when they emigrated they called their f
irst stopping-place on the American continent Tulan also; and besides this there were two other Tulans.

  “Of the Nahua predecessors of the Toltecs in Mexico the Olmecs and Xicalaucans were the most important. They were the forerunners of the great races that followed. According to Ixtlilxochitl, these people-which are conceded to be one occupied the world in the third age; they came from the East in ships or barks to the land of Potonchan, which they commenced to populate.”

  3. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, in one of the notes of the Introduction of the “Popol Vuh,” presents a very remarkable analogy between the kingdom of Xibalba, described in that work, and Atlantis. He says:

  “Both countries are magnificent, exceedingly fertile, and abound in the precious metals. The empire of Atlantis was divided into ten kingdoms, governed by five couples of twin sons of Poseidon, the eldest being supreme over the others; and the ten constituted a tribunal that managed the affairs of the empire. Their descendants governed after them. The ten kings of Xibalba, who reigned (in couples) under Hun-Came and Vukub-Came (and who together constituted a grand council of the kingdom), certainly furnish curious points of comparison. And there is wanting neither a catastrophe—for Xibalba had a terrific inundation—nor the name of Atlas, of which the etymology is found only in the Nahuatl tongue: it comes from atl, water; and we know that a city of Atlan (near the water) still existed on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama at the time of the Conquest.”

  “In Yucatan the traditions all point to an Eastern and foreign origin for the race. The early writers report that the natives believe their ancestors to have crossed the sea by a passage which was opened for them.” (Landa’s “Relacion,” p. 28.)

  “It was also believed that part of the population came into the country from the West. Lizana says that the smaller portion, ‘the little descent,’ came from the East, while the greater portion, ‘the great descent,’ came from the West. Cogolluda considers the Eastern colony to have been the larger. . . . The culture-hero Zamna, the author of all civilization in Yucatan, is described as the teacher of letters, and the leader of the people from their ancient home. . . . He was the leader of a colony from the East.” (“North Amer. of Antiq.,” p. 229.) The ancient Mexican legends say that, after the Flood, Coxcox and his wife, after wandering one hundred and four years, landed at Antlan, and passed thence to Capultepec, and thence to Culhuacan, and lastly to Mexico.

  Coming from Atlantis, they named their first landing-place Antlan.

  All the races that settled Mexico, we are told, traced their origin back to an Aztlan (Atlan-tis). Duran describes Aztlan as “a most attractive land.” (“North Amer. of Antiq.,” p. 257.) Same, the great name of Brazilian legend, came across the ocean from the rising sun. He had power over the elements and tempests; the trees of the forests would recede to make room for him (cutting down the trees); the animals used to crouch before him (domesticated animals); lakes and rivers became solid for him (boats and bridges); and he taught the use of agriculture and magic. Like him, Bochica, the great law-giver of the Muyscas, and son of the sun—he who invented for them the calendar and regulated their festivals—had a white beard, a detail in which all the American culture-heroes agree. The “Same” of Brazil was probably the “Zamna” of Yucatan.

  ELEPHANT

  MOUND

  ,

  WISCONSIN

  .

  4. We find in America numerous representations of the elephant. We are forced to one of two conclusions: either the monuments date back to the time of the mammoth in North America, or these people held intercourse at some time in the past with races who possessed the elephant, and from whom they obtained pictures of that singular animal. Plato tells us that the Atlanteans possessed great numbers of elephants.

  There are in Wisconsin a number of mounds of earth representing different animals-men, birds, and quadrupeds.

  ELEPHANT

  PIPE

  ,

  LOISA

  COUNTY

  ,

  IOWA

  .

  Among the latter is a mound representing an elephant, “so perfect in its proportions, and complete in its representation of an elephant, that its builders must have been well acquainted with all the physical characteristics of the animal which they delineated.” We copy the representation of this mound on page 168.

  On a farm in Louisa County, Iowa, a pipe was ploughed up which also represents an elephant. We are indebted to the valuable work of John T.

  Short (“The North Americans of Antiquity,” p. 530) for a picture of this singular object. It was found in a section where the ancient mounds were very abundant and rich in relics. The pipe is of sandstone, of the ordinary Mound-Builder’s type, and has every appearance of age and usage. There can be no doubt of its genuineness. The finder had no conception of its archaeological value.

  In the ruined city of Palenque we find, in one of the palaces, a stucco bass-relief of a priest. His elaborate head-dress or helmet represents very faithfully the head of an elephant. The cut on page 169 is from a drawing made by Waldeck.

  The decoration known as “elephant-trunks” is found in many parts of the ancient ruins of Central America, projecting from above the door-ways of the buildings.

  In Tylor’s “Researches into the Early History of Mankind,” p. 313, I find a remarkable representation of an elephant, taken from an ancient Mexican manuscript. It is as follows:

  MEXICAN

  REPRESENTATION

  OF

  ELEPHANT

  .

  CHAPTER IV.

  CORROBORATING CIRCUMSTANCES.

  1. Lenormant insists that the human race issued from Ups Merou, and adds that some Greek traditions point to “this locality—particularly the expression me’ropes a?’newpoi, which can only mean ‘the men sprung from Merou.’” (“Manual,” p.21.)

  Theopompus tells us that the people who inhabited Atlantis were the Meropes, the people of Merou.

  2. Whence comes the word Atlantic? The dictionaries tell us that the ocean is named after the mountains of Atlas; but whence did the Atlas mountains get their name?

  “The words Atlas and Atlantic have no satisfactory etymology in any language known to Europe. They are not Greek, and cannot be referred to any known language of the Old World. But in the Nahuatl language we find immediately the radical a, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top of the head. (Molina, “Vocab. en lengua Mexicana y Castellana.”) From this comes a series of words, such as atlan—on the border of or amid the water—from which we ‘have the adjective Atlantic. We have also atlaca, to combat, or be in agony; it means likewise to hurl or dart from the water, and in the preterit makes Atlaz. A city named Atlan existed when the continent was discovered by Columbus, at the entrance of the Gulf of Uraba, in Darien. With a good harbor, it is now reduced to an unimportant pueblo named Acla.” (Baldwin’s “Ancient America,” p.

  179.)

  Plato tells us that Atlantis and the Atlantic Ocean were named after Atlas, the eldest son of Poseidon, the founder of the kingdom.

  3. Upon that part of the African continent nearest to the site of Atlantis we find a chain of mountains, known from the most ancient times as the Atlas Mountains. Whence this name Atlas, if it be not from the name of the great king of Atlantis? And if this be not its origin, how comes it that we find it in the most north-western corner of Africa? And how does it happen that in the time of Herodotus there dwelt near this mountain-chain a people called the Atlantes, probably a remnant of a colony from Solon’s island? How comes it that the people of the Barbary States were known to the Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians as the “Atlantes,” this name being especially applied to the inhabitants of Fezzan and Bilma? Where did they get the name from? There is no etymology for it east of the Atlantic Ocean. (Lenormants “Anc. Hist. of the East,” p. 253.)

  Look at it! An “Atlas” mountain on the shore of Africa; an “Atlan” town on the shore of America; the “Atlantes” living along the
north and west coast of Africa; an Aztec people from Aztlan, in Central America; an ocean rolling between the two worlds called the “Atlantic;” a mythological deity called “Atlas” holding the world on his shoulders; and an immemorial tradition of an island of Atlantis. Can all these things be the result of accident?

  4. Plato says that there was a “passage west from Atlantis to the rest of the islands, as well as from these islands to the whole opposite continent that surrounds that real sea.” He calls it a real sea, as contradistinguished from the Mediterranean, which, as he says, is not a real sea (or ocean) but a landlocked body of water, like a harbor.

  Now, Plato might have created Atlantis out of his imagination; but how could he have invented the islands beyond (the West India Islands), and the whole continent (America) enclosing that real sea? If we look at the map, we see that the continent of America does “surround” the ocean in a great half-circle. Could Plato have guessed all this? If there had been no Atlantis, and no series of voyages from it that revealed the half-circle of the continent from Newfoundland to Cape St. Roche, how could Plato have guessed it? And how could he have known that the Mediterranean was only a harbor compared with the magnitude of the great ocean surrounding Atlantis? Long sea-voyages were necessary to establish that fact, and the Greeks, who kept close to the shores in their short journeys, did not make such voyages.

  5. How can we, without Atlantis, explain the presence of the Basques in Europe, who have no lingual affinities with any other race on the continent of Europe, but whose language is similar to the languages of America?

  Plato tells us that the dominion of Gadeirus, one of the kings of Atlantis, extended “toward the pillars of Heracles (Hercules) as far as the country which is still called the region of Gades in that part of the world.” Gades is the Cadiz of today, and the dominion of Gadeirus embraced the land of the Iberians or Basques, their chief city taking its name from a king of Atlantis, and they themselves being Atlanteans.