# Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders/Told in Yucatan

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TOLD IN YUCATAN
LONG before the Spaniards knew that there was a Western world to conquer, a people occupied the tropic belt of the Americas who, at the time that the palaces and temples of Central America were erected, were the equals of those same Spaniards in civilization. These people were architects and sculptors, they knew the use of metal, they embalmed and entombed their dead, they had roads; they had, moreover, a government, a religion, a writing, and they built the great cities whose ruins, even where overgrown by the dense forests of the lowlands, are not less surprising than those of Egypt and Assyria. One enthusiastic antiquary, who spent some years among the long lost and newly found cities of Yucatan, believes that he has verified much ancient history as a possession of our own. He says that the garden of Eden is in Mexico, the tomb of Abel in Yucatan, with inscriptions on it recounting the tragedy,—carved possibly by Cain,—and that from this birthplace of the human race the Old World was peopled. Egypt, he says, was colonized from Yucatan, the Egyptian mummies were carried to Africa from America, the Sphinx was a monument to Abel, erected by his widow, and the Greek alphabet was ​an account, in Yucatan hieroglyphics, of the sinking of the continent of Atlantis. The fierce Quiches, who have inherited from their ancestors of the sixteenth century a hatred of Europeans, or "white monkeys," are thought to keep alive the language of the ancient Mayas, which is as old as the Sanskrit, if not older, and is believed to be allied to that of the ancient Egyptians, the picture-writing of the two families showing many things in common.
Yucatan is a Mayax word, meaning "first land," and the country reached from Tehuantepec to Darien. The word maya occurs in many Asian, African, and European tongues, where it always expresses strength and wisdom, and in certain of the relics bearded men, like Assyrians, are represented as visiting Uxmal and Chichinitza, big cities that drew to them scholars from all over the country. The story of Cain and Abel occurs in Egyptian tradition and in the Sanskrit poem Ramayana in such a form as to assimilate it to the Maya legend that the two sons of King Kan (or King Snake) fell out on a question of prestige, and Prince Aak (The Turtle) stabbed his brother Koh (The Leopard), who was embalmed, all but his heart, which was cremated and placed in an urn, together with the stone spear-head that did the murder. Some say that the statue of the slain prince is to be seen in the national museum of Mexico, where it is labelled Chakmool, the sun god. After ​this untoward event the assassin, a veritable Richard III. of his day, laid a vain siege to the heart of the dead man's widow, Moo (Macaw), his own sister, by the way, the Mayax royal families, like those of Egypt, being resolved to keep their blood free from plebeian stain; and a wall-painting shows Prince Aak with his serpent totem, tempting the woman with fruit from a tree in which perches a monkey, representing wisdom. Queen Moo raised a statue to the departed, the figure of a leopard with three stab-wounds in the back; and on going to Egypt afterward, she had the workmen of that empire raise a statue to his memory, that took the shape of the Sphinx. To this day certain Africans wear a leopard-skin as a charm against spear-thrusts.
Another of the traditions of the Mayas was that of a flood. All races have this legend. The Egyptian priests, who scoffed at the Greeks for believing that the entire human race had been drowned in Deucalion's deluge, told Solon, nevertheless, twenty-five hundred years ago, that the land of Mú, in the Atlantic Ocean, had sunk in a day and night, nine thousand years before his visit. A terrific volcanic outburst had destroyed the island. Plato told of the same disaster. Over the door of a room in the "house of the dark writing" in Chichinitza is another account of the lost Atlantis, which has been translated to this effect: In the year 6 Kan, 11 Muluc, the month ​Zac, occurred terrible earthquakes that kept stead-ily on until the 13th Chuen. The country of mud-hills, Mú, was destroyed. Twice it was upheaved, then suddenly disappeared in the night. When the surface gave way ten countries were torn asunder and scattered. Unable to withstand the force of the convulsions, they sank, with their sixty-four million inhabitants, eight thousand and sixty years before the making of the record. The superstition attaching to the number 13 is ascribed to the occurrence of this appalling catastrophe on the 13th Chuen, or February. The blacks that the Spaniards found in America are held to be survivors from the people of this lost continent.
We have no living elephants, yet gods and demigods with elephant-heads were carved by Mayas and Aztecs. This proves no alien origin in the artists, for the elephant lived in America, doubtless within two thousand years. The worship of serpents is alleged to have originated in the popular love for the good king Kan, whose totem, or seal, or name-sign, or coat of arms, was a snake. The cross is likewise seen in the ornaments of buildings, the ground-plan of a temple in Uxmal is cruciform, and statues found in Palenque and other ancient cities of Guatemala bear the cross on their breasts. Its use is said to be related to the appearance of the constellation of the Southern Cross, which in the month of Maya, or May, stands above the horizon in Mayax, and the people welcome it ​because the long, dry season then breaks up in copious rain, bringing coolness and plenty to the earth.
We know that Kopan had bound books and phonetic writing long before the conquest, as well as splendid arts. That education was encouraged in ancient Mayax is hardly true, however, since learning was surrounded with difficulties and ceremonies, though the priests and teachers doubtless allowed the children to learn a few simple facts without scaring them into as many fits. The hazing to which candidates for admission to the temples were subjected was very dismal. Still, the account of it found in the sculptures and in the sacred book of the Quiches may be allegorical, since it appears to be characteristic of primitive peoples never to say a thing plainly if there is any way to cover it with parable and set people to quarrelling about it afterward. The ancient initiation was this: First, the unhappy wretch who wanted to learn the multiplication table and other portentous knowledge had to cross a river of mud and another of blood. There are no such rivers, except in-doors. However, when he got over he had to walk on four roads, white, red, green, and black, which took him to a hall where a number of veiled priests awaited him. He had first to pick out the priest who was made of wood, be-cause one of the party was bogus, and he was then invited to be seated. The stone bench was ​burning hot, and when the victim pensively arose the company said it was a lesson to him not to be familiar in presence of his superiors. Then he had to spend a night in a guarded cell holding a lighted torch in his hand and a smaller one in his mouth. These he must not put out, yet they must go out, and he must give them back in the morning, under penalty of beating and death. The next act in this useful and entertaining performance was to defend himself against the attacks of an able-bodied spearman. Then he passed a night in an ice-house,—and where did they get the ice?—and danced for ten hours to keep from freezing and catching pneumonia. Another night in a den of wild animals prepared him for nearly anything that might follow, and if he still wanted to study the multiplication table he was put into a house where fires were burning all night. After this what was left of him was thrown into the house of bats, and these pleasant creatures got into his hair and nibbled his flesh and nearly put his eyes out with their wings, while Camazotz, the bat god, who, you may be sure, was one of the priests in disguise, capered about, trying to get a chance to cut off his head. If the scholar lived through all this he was congratulated, and spent the rest of his days pining for a chance to initiate others. Such performances had their use. It was the able that survived.