MARKHAM HOUSE PRESS, LTD.

ATLANTEAN RESEARCH

THE MAIL ORDER BOOK SERVICE.

Official Organ ofTHE

ART AND LIFE IN ANCIENT MEXICO

Vol. 2.

RESEARCH

No. 4.

C E N T R E GROUP

October/November, 1949.

by

CONTENTS

COTTIE A. BURLAND.
W ith 47 half-tone ilhistrations and many line drawings fromthe ancient MSS.
Crown 4to.

112 pages.

P o st free 16/6d. or f2 .5 0 .

A N C I E N T M EX IC O has always* had a great fascination not

only for the historian and anthropologist but for everybody inter­
ested in the history of mankind on its way from barbarism tocivilisation. The grandiose ruins of Mexico are among the mostimpressive monuments of this struggle. Some of their m ysteries
have been solved by long years of research, many are still eluding
us. B u t the work is progressing all the tim e and hardly a month
passes w ithout new and important discoveries being made.
T H E AUTHOR:

C. A. Burland, to-day one of our leading young Americanists,
has already made im portant contributions to the interpretation of
the documents and manuscripts in our possession. H e has the rareg ift of relating scientifio results in a vivid language, with a keensense of the drama behind the facts and the excitem ent behind
their discovery.
T H E BOOK AND T H E R E A D E R :W hile thus opening a new field to the reader, the book will a t
the same tim e be invaluable to the student through notes andappendixes on Mexican writing and on the complicated Calendricalsystem of which the author gives for the first tim e a comprehen­sible and lucid interpretation. The book is illustrated by manyline drawings of Mexican Glyphs taken from the ancient docu­
ments. There is also a glossary, an extensive bibliography and acomprehensive list of all well known M exican MSS sources.
The illustrations, some of which have not been reproduced
before, reveal the astonishing richness of public and private collec­
tions in this country and will come as a surprise to many in theirclose affinity to modern art. I t is perhaps significant th at one ofth e m ost im portant pieces comes from the collection of Henry
Moore.

MARKHAM HOUSE PRESS, LTD.,31, King’s Road, London, S.W.3.

Page
COSMOS:
Hoerbiger and the March of Time
By L. C. Suggars, M.M.

49

An Asteroid as the Possible Cause of the A tlantis
Submersion
By Professor N. Boneff

50

Zodiacal Epochs
By Professor M. Kamienski 52
A TLA N TIS:
Mexican Deluge Legends
By C. A. Burland
The New Critical Edition of Donnelly
By L. YoungAVALON:The Possibility of the Egyptian and Atlantean
Cultures having been contemporary
By Professor Rene Malaise

57

58

Complemented by letters exchanged between
Dr. Rene Malaise and Dr. P. L. Collignon.
A Correction.

61

Prolegomena to the Study of Myths
By E. Sykes.

62

Editor: E. S Y K E S .

Annual Subscription 12/6, or U.S.A. $1.75. Post Free.
, Single Number, 2/- or 30 Cents.
Registered with Stationer) Hall.

B.T.S., 453-5. Fulham Road. S.W.IO.

55

HOERBIGER AND THE MARCH OF TIME.
L. C. SUGGERS, M.M.

RESEARCH CENTRE GROUP.
The Atlaaitis Research Centre.

The Hoerbiger Institute^

The Avalon Society.
C hairm an: EGERTON SYKES.
Hon. Secretary, K. E. SYKES.

Hon. Treasurer: J. BARNES.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.
If any member lias not received his copy of the Annual
Report, together with the audited balance sheets of the threeSocieties, will he please communicate with the Hon. Secretary.
EXCURSION TO MARGATE.
The visit to the Egyptian Temple at M argate, which it ishoped to combine with attendance at the inaugural meeting of
the Isle of Thanet Archeological Association, will be on Sun­day, the 13th November. Details from the Excursion Organiser,
FRO 7374.
EGYPTIAN CULTURAL TRACES.
The next lecture, on this subject, will be by Mr. E ric Wills,
at the Caxton Hall, on the 25th November, at 7.30 p.m. Fulldetails from the Hon. Secretary, 9, Markham Square, S.W.3.
KEN. 5381. Tickets at the door.

MOONS, MYTHS AND MAN
M arkham House regret to announce th at they havebeen advised th at owing to technical difficulties, the newedition of this im portant work will not be available until
the first weeks in January, when copies will be sent off to
all those whose orders are awaiting execution.

With the approach of the darker nights, when the serious
amateur astronomer can carry out observation without much in­trusion into his sleeping hours, it is interesting to review someof the discoveries that have taken place since my last article in
September, 1948, and to see how Hoerbiger’s theories come to be
more and more justified.
The discovery of the present greatest importance is a small
asteroid about 5,000 feet in diameter. This discovery was madeby Professor W alter Baade. He was taking a photograph on
June 26th this year with the 48 inch Schmidt telescope on Mount
Palomar—the home of the 200 inch telescope.
On the photographic print he noticed a comparatively long
streak made by a moving body as it passed across the sky. Sul^sequent calculations and photographs proved this to be an
asteroid whose orbit at perihelion lay inside that of Mercury.
In other words, it passes closer to the sun than any other known
body except meteors and comets. At aphelion, i.e. at its farthest
distance from the sun it lies just beyond the orbit of Mars. Its
orbit takes the form of a typical elipse, and, as it passes between
Mercury and the Sun, the major axis of the elipse is very much
longer than the minor axis. Its orbit therefore crosses th at ofVenus and E arth at very roughly a right angle.
This peculiarity is also shared by four other asteroids:
Amor, Apollo, Adonis and Hermes, the latter in October, 1937,
came within 485,000 miles of the earth. These five asteroids
therefore do not move along in the usual asteroid belt between
Mars and Jupiter but cut right across the orbits of the minor
planets. Owing to the angle, their orbits make with that of theminor planets, it is doubtful if either of the five can be captured
like our moon was, but the possibility must be there, especiallyas their orbits are probably modified at each crossing due togravitational forces.
Why should this fifth asteroid be of such importance?
Because it emphasises th at the five together (and probably somemore yet to be discovered) have a peculiar type of orbit whichmust be taken into account when considering the birth of thesolar system. These orbits must fit into any theory, and what
better theory could there be than that they were expelled fromthe sun’s body! Can it be that all original orbits were long
slender elipses, now modified into nearly circles by time andgravitational forces coincident with their masses?
Incidentally Professor Baade’s asteroid awaits a name.
Two other discoveries have also been made, both by Dr. G.
P. Kuiper in America. One was actually made before my article
was written, but as it was not generally known, I am including it
here.
49

His first discovery was of a fifth satellite of Uranus. This
has now been named Miranda and though a lot of deails are notyet known, its orbit is roughly in the plane of U ranus’ equatorwith a period of 33 hours 56 minutes.
The second discovery is a second satellite of Neptune. Thiswas made on 1st May this year. The new satellite has a diameterof approxiniately 200 miles and a period of about 2 years, its
orbit being inclined 5° to the ecliptic and roughly circular witha radius of probably 5,000,000 miles.
The discovery of these two satellites naturally raises thequestion, have they always been there or are they recent acquisi­
tions by Uranus and Neptune? Unfortunately, they are so far
away that their previous discovery was probably impossible with
the instruments then available, but one would expect giants ofthe size of Neptune and Uranus to have collected more satellites
than s e v p between them. Jupiter has eleven and Saturn (ignor­
ing its rings) has nine. If you count the rings as the remains of
two satellites (as M. Reiffenstein maintains they are), thenSaturn has eleven. As the greater bulk of the satellite m atteris distributed over the area Mars—Neptune we would expect
Uranus to have seven satellites and Neptune three or four. It
will be interesting to watch, for further discoveries on this point
as well as for the posibility of further satellites for Jupiter andSaturn.
Large quantities of satellites accompanying eachprim ary can only mean “ capture” and not “ b irth,” that can
p r e ly only come from a body the size of the sun. I t is doubtful
if any smaller body would have the necessary initial temperature
to give birth to satellites.

In a recent thesis on the dsitribntion of formations on
the surface of the moon, we have shown by the applicationof certain theorems of the theory of probabilities th at between
the two hypotheses as to the origin of lunar craters, the volcanicand the meteoric, it is the first th at should be considered forpreference.
N aturally we have not denied the possibility of certain
relatively small and isolated craters being caused by meteors
as even at the present time thef;e are seen to fall on the Moon.

The present essay will endeavour to show that even thecatastrophe of A tlantis could well have been due to extra
territorial causes.
We have naturally supposed th a t the
Atlantis myth is not totally without an historical basis.
The basic source of all the writings, ancient and modern,on Atlantis is in the two dialogues of Plato, the Timaeus andthe Critias. It appears th at while Aristotle disbelieved in it,
Posidonius felt that P lato’s story could be based on facts. The
tradition relative to this island could well be not a work offiction, the E gyptian priests who were interrogated by Solon
having certified to him th at there had existed form erly an
island of this name, but th at it had disappeared even though
it was the size of a continent.
Among the modern w riters is the astronomer Bailly, "w^hobelieved th at the legend of Atlantis was t r u e ; and also Termier
the geologist, who considered th at A tlantis existed in the spot
mentioned in the Timaeus (to the west of the Columns of
Hercules).
Deep longtitudinal ditches border the east and west coastsof the Atlantic as if vast sinkings had taken place there. The
Azores, Madeira, the Canaries and the Cap Verde Islands, ofwhich the fauna is of continental origin, being similar to th atof the Antilles and the Senegal coast, are now believed to bevestiges of the Lost Continent.
In carefully reading the above mentioned dialogues ofPlato, we have had the impression th a t the details as to thesocial and political life of Atlantis were inserted by Plato for
his personal political objects. As to the actual myth of thecatastrophe, we believe th at on the whole this correspondswith historical reality, as has happened frequently in othersimilar cases where public imagination has been greatly im­pressed by the energetic manifestations of natural forces. For
example, the giant meteor crater in Arizona, which is known
to be the result of an enormous iron meteor which fell about
five thousand years ago, has produced amongst the Indians
who inhabit the district a story of a God of Fire who came along time ago from Heaven to Earth. I t would seem th at the
Biblical story of Sodom and Gormorrah has a similar basis
in th at these towns were probably destroyed by the falling ofa large meteor similar to those which fell in Siberia on 30th
June, 1908 and 13th February, 1917. The story of Phaeton
who harnessed his fath e r’s sun chariot, and having little
knowledge of how to drive it, burnt all that was on the earthand perished himself, is probably to be explained in a similarmanner.
The physical explanation of the loss of A tlantis as told
by Plato would appear to lie in an extra territorial cause. It
has always seemed strange th at such a catastrophe should
result from earthquakes, particularly at such a relatively re­cent d a te ; and we feel ourselves th at the cause of the disastermay be solved by the tidal theory of T.fach, and was possibly

50

51

AN ASTEROID AS THE POSSIBLE CAUSE OF THE
ATLANTIS CATASTROPHE.
By Professor N. BONBFP.
Professor BonefE, who holds the Chair of Astronomy at the
University of Sofia, postulates the tidal effect of an asteroid
passing close to, or even striking the Earth a glancing blow,
miglit have caused the submersion of A tlantis. H is paper,of which this is an abstract, was published in the Annals of the
U niversity for 1948/59.

due to the close passage of one of the larger asteroids, which
may even have brushed against the E arth in passing. The
mathematics involved are based on the principles laid downby Mach in his famous work on mechanics.
Assuming th a t Ceres, the largest of the asteriods, had passed
the earth at six times the radius of the earth, its influence
would be ten times th at of the moon as it now is; so th at if
any asteriod of approxim ately the same bulk had come nearer,
the result would be adequate, in the opinion of the writer,
to produce the loss of A tlan tis; and particularly if the asteroid
had collided with the earth or even brushed by it in its passage.
It is interesting to note th a t there is at the bottom of
the Atlantic Ocean a longtitudinal ridge (this is better known
to English readers as the Dolphin ridge) in the shape of alarge S which can be seen on the map drawn up by Vorst after
the Meteor expedition of 1925/27. The water on top of theridge is only about 500 metres deep, as compared with 4,000
on either side. The w riter considers th a t this ridge is not
only the last vestige of the lost Atlantis, but the spinal cordof the lost continent. The m aterials of this continent and of
the asteriod are dispersed at the bottom of the Atlantic andeven further and may be the origin of the organic mud(Grlobigerinenschlamm).
N O T E by the Editor.— ^It has not been possible to reproduce thealgebraical formulae for technical reasons, but Mr. Suggers has promised
to go into the m atter at his lecture on the 28th October. The full text
o f Dr. BonefE’s paper may be consulted on application to the Editor. It
is in French.

ZODIACAL EPOCHS.
PROF. MICHAEL KAMIENSKI, A.P.R.A.S.
of the University of Krakow.
1. The problem of fixing the limits of the Zodiacal Epochs,
i.e. of those periods, during which the Vernal Point passes
through a given constellation, is—from the astronomical pointof view—to some extent indefinite. It arises from the fact, thatthe exact borders of constellations cannot be properly fixed. They
enter one into another, so that there is no exact criterion witli
which one could decide as to the bordering stars, especially faintones, if they belong to the given or to the neighbouring constella­tion. ^ Moreover, some of them, e.g. Capricorn and Aquarius,
are situated along the ecliptic in such a manner, that some of
their parts extend parallel one to another and to the ecliptic,
which makes the solution of the above problem even more diffi­
cult. Consequently, there is no wonder, that the beginnings andends of the Zodiacal Epochs differ by a thousand years or evenmore, as given by several authors (v.3).
For the solving the problem it would be perhaps suitable to62

ground on the constellations ’ borders fixed by Hipparches and toaccept them as unequal (A. Jeremias). Since, however, they are
in reality but perspective projections of certain groups 'of stars
on the celestial sphere, one cannot see a greater raison d ’etre forthe adoption of this last conception, the more that the borders ofconstellations as well as their nameS vary with different peoples;.
2. With this in view, the Author decided to maintain thedivision of the Zodiac into twelve equal parts and to adopt forthe beginning of the Main Epoch the moment of entrance of the
Vernal Point into the constellation of Taurus, between the stars
eta Geminorum and dzeta Tauri. This last star is situated on
the end of the southern horn of the Bull. The entrance of the
Vernal Point into this place happened in 4500 B.C. The wellknown verse of V ergil: “ Candidus asuratis aperit cum oomibus
anmim-Taunis . . . ” or—The Shining Bull opens the yearwith his gilded horns—confirms our conception, pointing the
moment, when the Sun, entering this Vernal Point, lighted theconstellation of the Bull with its golden rays. A. Jeremias (i)adopts the year 4400 b . c . as the beginning of the Bull era, con­sequently, comparatively close to that given above.
3. In consequence of the Phenomenon of precession, which
has its source in the gravitational action of the Sun and Moonon the equatorial convexity of the Earth, the position of the
Vernal Point—i.e. one of the points of intersection of the celestial
equator with the ecliptic—is not unalterable. I t moves from theEast to the West, from left to right, projecting itself in front ofdifferent constellations. The motion is very slow, because its
period lasts about 26,000 years. In the year 4500 B.C. the Vernal
Point had just passed from the constellation Gemini to that of
Taurus.
Consequently, one must discern the zodiacal constellations
from the signs of the Zodiac. The first ones are not equal, e.g.
the Bull extends 20° and the Virgin—36°, etc. Dividing theecliptic into twelve equal parts, we get twelve zodiacal signs,
which—in the time of Hipparches—covered the most p art of thecorresponding constellations.
Now, the zodiacal signs do not depend more from the con­stellations. They pass on their background in the period of
26,000 years, so that
26,000 : 12 = 2,150 years
falls to each of them.
In such a way, we get the following Table for the zodiacal
eras or epochs:—
Arc of the Ecliptic
Sign
Era
300°- 330°
Aquarius
1,950 A.D. - 4,100 A.D.
330’- 360°
Pisces200 B.C. - 1,950 A.D.
0°- 30"Aries
2,350 B.C. 200 B.C.
30°- 60°
Taurus4,500 B.C . - 2,350 B.C.
60°- 90°
Gemini
6,650 B.C. - 4,500 B.C.
63

Arc of the EcUptic
90°-120“ ..
120^-150° ..
150°-180° ..
180°-210° ..
210°-240° ..
240°-270° ..
270°. 300° ..

Sign
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
CapricornEra8,800 B.C. - 6,650 B.C.
10,950 B.C. - 8,800 B.C.
13,100 B .C . -10,950 B.C.
15,250 B .C . -13,100 B.C.
17,400 B . C . - 15,250 B.C.
19,550 B .C . -17,400 B.C.
21,700 B .C . -19,550 B.C.

I t is to be noted that the datum for the begiuiiing of the Aquarius Era
agrees entirely with that one given by the H indu astrologers (2 ). T h is w as
however detected by the Author after closing his article.

Other authors give .different data for the beginning of thePisces E r a :—C. Flammai’ion (3) ...............
128 B.C. - 2,032 a .d .
A. Jeremias (1)...............
100 a ,d . - 3,000 a .d .
R. Steiner...........................
1,413 a .d . - 3,575 a .d .
I'he author is of the opinion, that A. Jeremias’ computations
were made rather informally, without properly entering into theessence of the problem, and into the mutual limits of Aquarius
and Pisces. As to R. Steiner, he started from quite different—
non-astronomical—assumptions.
4. According to the esoteric point of view, the Aquarius era
began already about 1880 a . d . No doubt, they consider this be­
ginning in the higher planes (01am ha Jezirah-World of theFormings). B ut a certain period of time must pass, before“ The Word becomes Flesh” and descends into the IPhysicalPlane.
There is also a very interesting thing to note, that—accord­
ing to Abbot Trithemius (^), just about 1880 a .d ., and more pre­cisely — in November, 1879 a .d ., there began the Realm of
MIKAEL, the Angel of the Sun. This Realm will last 354 years
and 4 months. This cycle has, however, nothing in common withprecession.
Passing the limits of the Exact Mental Knowledge, we seeth at “ There are signs in the Heaven and on the E a rth ” announc­
ing that the mournful B ra of Pisces is ending; we enter in thatof Acquarius—^which will carry Light, Life and Love into themutual relationship of mankind, when our Globe will live in atrue, sacrifying Christian Love towards everything, which lives
and flourishes under the Sun.
REFERENCES.
1. A. Jeremias. Ilandbuch der Altorientalischen Geisteskultur.
2. D as Grosse Buch der N ativitatslehre-Brihat Jataka, das Varahamira,p. 17 and 18, Hamburg, 1925.
3. C. Flammarion, H istoire du Ciel.

4. Abbot Trithemius. De Septem Secuudeis, id est intelligentiis, siv«
spiritibus orbes post Deum moventibns.

54

MEXICAN DELUGE LEGENDS.
By C. A. BURL^ND.
While the Collection of Mendoza, in Oxford, remains ourmost important source for Mexican histories, it is not the only
one, there are two other documents painted for the Spaniards
which give historical annals which compare with Mendoza. One,
now in Paris, once belonged to Archbishop Teller, of Rheims,
and is therefore named Codex Telleriano-Remensis. The otherreposes in the Vatican Library and is known as Codex Rios. Bothof these are very much alike. Telleriano has been annotatedin Spanish by at least three different persons, and Rios has acommentary written in Italian. There is no doubt that they areboth copied from a single original document, now thought to havebeen lost before 1600. These documents continue the annals wellinto Spanish times. The better painted is Telleriano, but in
another respect it is inferior to Rios because many of the pages
are missing, particularly the pages which deal with religion andmythology.
In the field of Mexican belief Codex Rios is our most im­
portant source of information. Like the Magliabecciano docu­
ment it gives some description of feasts and the gods associatedwith them, but it also gives a complete record of the magical
Tonalpohualli of 260 days, recording the sequence of nine major
gods of the underworlds which inliuenee the fortunes ascribedto each particular day, and also the division of the Tonalpo­
hualli into twenty different periods of thirteen days each. These
thirteen-day periods each fall under the patronage of a particulardeity with whom are painted various symbols. Rios gives a fulldescription of the meanings associated with all this mumbo-jumboof the old-time magicians, and thereby has enabled us to identify
the same system where it appears in the more ancient magic
books. F or example the god Tezcatlipoca in his form as the
Chalchiuhtotolin, Jewelled Turkey, is shown as lord of the period
beginning with the day Ce Atl. The Italian description men­tions a detail which is missing in the painting, but precisely
this missing detail appears in Codex Vaticanus, 3773, where thesame god presiding over the same period of days has been painted
on a codex which is older than the Spanish invasion of 1519.
The parallelism of the text as painted by the copyist of Rios andthe ancient Mexican tlacuilos, who painted three of the surviving
magic books, is equally complete over the whole twenty periodsof thirteen days. I t is evidence th at we are on pretty safe groundin accepting the commentary in Rios, especially as it is borneout in many particulars by the writings of that most painstakingof anthropologists, Father Sahagun.
King-sborough published Codex Rios in his volumes of 1831
and it was published in facsimile by the Due de Loubat, in 1900.
Its official title is Manoscritto Messicano Vaticano, 3738. Thatit should rest in the Vatican is most appropriate as it records
one of the strangest heathendoms ever tackled by the missionaries,
and the one with the most remarkable parallel with Christian55

belief. In its account of the Mexican version of the creation it
includes a flood story among the account of the three past and
one future destructions of this world.
Here is a brief account of the creation story as given in thefirst few pages of the m anuscript;—
In the beginning was God, Ome Teuctli (THE TWO) livingin the highest place: beneath him were thirteen heavens, theearth and the nine places beneath the earth. The first creation
was of four spirit beings who were cast down from the heaven.
They were the Tzitzimitl, darting arrow demon, a falling star:Izpaztec, a lame hopping demon, a kind of Mexican Asmodeus;
Nextepehua, the disperser, who would scatter men like ashes, andTzontemon, the demon who was cast down upon his head.
A later creation brought the first human beings, they werenamed Cipactonal and Xumio, and from them a powerful raceof giants descended. When death overtook the human race thegrown-ups went to the place below, and, after passing throughmany torments reached a peaceful resting place in M ictlan; but
the souls of unweaned children went to a special place for theirkind alone, where there was a wonderful tree which nourishedthem with its milk. There they remained, happy babies waiting
to welcome the destruction of the old creation, when they would
become the souls of the next race of people. They had to wait
4,008 years until the gods, dissatisfied with the giants, drowned
the eartli. All the people in it were turned into fishes, except
two who escaped by hiding in an ahuehuete tree. This catas­
trophe happened on the day ten Atl.
At length the earth emerged from the flood, and once morea new race spread over it, this time for a space of 4,010 years,
until on the day Ce Itzcuintli there came a great wind fromheaven which destroyed men and the trees.
The men werechanged into monkeys. Jaguars from the darkened sky ate themup, but two people escaped this destruction by hiding in a stone.
Once again humanity was put on tria l; the descendants ofthe stone men did quite well and lasted 4,801 years, and thenagain destruction came, this time by fire, and once more two
people escaped in a boat on the waters.
For the fourth time the human race spread around, thistime they were people like ourselves and the earth was filledwith joy and beauty and pleasure. Zochiquetzal, Lady Precious
Flower, the goddess of sensual pleasures was the reigning in­fluence in this happy innocent time. But the story goes thatthe god Quetzalcoatl was born towards its end from a virgin who
swept the temples (in the pictures she was shown as a cruel stone
knife).
Quetzalcoatl became a priest, holy and austere, propitiating
the gods with his own blood, but the demon Tezcatlipoca plottedto destroy the power of good that had arrived in the world, andpersuaded Quetzalcoatl by a trick to drink a powerful intoxicant,and then Xochiquetzal seduced him. This break with priestly
austerity forced Quetzalcoatl to leave the land. As he went away

his insignia were left behind; at the Conquest the priests of
Cholula still preserved two jewels said to have been worn by thedeparting god. He sailed into the ocean on a raft of serpentskins, prophesying that he would return on a j^ear Ome Acatl todisplace the demon Tezcatlipoca and bring back the reign ofhappiness. As he sailed the raft burnt up and the heart ofQuetzalcoatl flew up into the sky to become Morning Star. Thatis how evil came into our W orld
At last it will come to an end on a day named Naui Oliin,
when an earthquake will destroy the world for the fourth time,nor is it known if it will be given a fifth chance.
From this story comes a quite astonishing confirmation of
the ancient origin of the material quoted by the commentator of
Codex Rios.
At first it was thought that the creation legends of the docu­
ment had been written up after the conquest and edited to suit
Christian ideas. But in the great work of excavating and restor­
ing the ancient city of Chichen Itza in Yucatan, shared between
the Mexican Government and the Carnegie Institution of Wash­
ington, a building known as the Temple of the Wall Panels wascleared. On the pictured panels of the wall was a representationof the destruction of the world by wind, and the devouring of
the monkey-men by Jaguars, carved in a way strongly reminis­
cent of the picture in Codex Rios. There was no disputing thefact that this temple belonged to the period when a group of
Mexican Toltecs ruled Chichen in the Eleventh Century A.D.,
nearly five hundred years before the pictures in Codex Rios cameto be painted.
Thus we see that there is good literary authority, capableof experimental verification, for the main details of the contentsof the book of ancient Mexico.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.

56

57

1.

'2.
3.
4.

Cofiex Rios. K iugsborough: Mcxican Antiquities. Loiulou, ISiJl.
Vol. I I . Reproduction.
Vol. V. lita lia n Text.
Vol. VI. T ext in English.
F acsim ile edition. D ue de Loubat. I’aiis, 1900.
Codex Vaticdtius 3773. Facsim ile edition. D ue
Loubat.
Danesi, Rome, 189S.
The Tem ple of the W a ll Pa/iielii: Chichen Itza .
Contributions to American anthropology and history.
Carnegie
Institution of W ashington.

THE NEW EDITION OF DONNELLY.
LESLIE YOUNG.
When Donnelly’s work concerning Atlantis appeared in
1882, it at once achieved an international success and continued
to receive appreciations from writers in all countries till the pre­sent day. Its outstanding merit was due to the fact that it was
the first work of its kind to treat the subject of Atlantis byappealing to contemporary scientific evidence.
The measureof Donnelly’s success is to be judged by the fact that a series

By Professor RENE MALAISE.
The cold climate of the last glacial epoch of the Great Ice
Age changed to a warmer about 25,000-30,000 years ago, but
the last ice-sheet remained in Scandinavia and melted away
only round 8,000 years ago. The diagram of Dr. Piggot fromhis coring of the North Atlantic, mentioned in my article of the“ A tlantean Research,” Vol. I, No. 2-4, indicates th a t a cold
marine current continued to bring sediments from floating ice
many thousands of years after the “ glacial” foram inifera of

the surface water had been succeeded by more warm-loving
species. This sedimentation is absolutely inexplicable if we do
not presuppose a strip of land to have existed to the north ofthe locality from where Dr. Piggot got his cores. This locality,
called Faraday Hills, constitutes a much more narrow sub­marine ridge than the rest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge further tothe south towards the Azores. The Faraday Hills and the still
narrow er ridge to the north of it directed the cold current fromthe north and protected it from the Gulf Stream. The occur­
rence of a heavy sedimentation east of these ridges many
thousands of years after the climate changed is a definite proofth a t the ridges could have prevented the Gulf Stream frompassing over the locality in question during th at time. The
much broader land in the vicinity of the Azores must, owing
to its greater width, have prevailed longer than the morenarrow ridges where the downwarping forces of the cold water
could be more effective. This p a rt of the now submarine MidAtlantic Ridge must accordingly have existed a longer time
above water level than the narrower ones. Therefore, I feelmyself justified to state that, in my opinion, A tlantis may quite
well have been contemporary as land to the Egyptian colony inEngland at the time of the building of the Stonehenge.
The above note hy Dr. Malaise is complimented by thefollowinq letters exchanged between him. and Dr. P. L. CoUignon.
Stockholm
10th September, 1949.
Dear Sir,
It was with extraordinary interest th at I read the firstp art of your article on Egyptian Place Names in “ Atlantean
Research.” You may have noticed th at I wrote an article on
A tlantis in some of the earlier numbers of the same journal.
Now I have prepared a book in Swedish, with the title“ Atlantis, a Geological F a c t,” and in it I have proved th at aland around the Azores, extending north and south, must haveexisted many thousands of years after the end of the Great Ice
Age, and accordingly it may have possibly been contemporary
with the older Egyptian culture. W ith Egyptians in Englandsome thousands years before Christ it is quite possible sometrade or cultural interchange existed between them and an
A tlantean empire, and the old tale of Plato may thu^s containsome traces of truth.
Now, I am most interested in this prehistoric Egyptiancolonisation in England and especially in the possibility that
Stonehenge may be an Egyptian temple. I am no archeologist
and do not know archeological literature, but I am usually inthe habit of going to the sources. I would therefore be mostgrateful to you if you could give me some hints as to some scien­tific works dealing with Stonehenge and stating the Egyptian
origin. _ Dr. Rendel H arris may, perhaps, have published some­thing in th a t line? A comparison of Stonehenge and the58

69

of basic principles wete established that are still recognised as
methods of Atlantean investigation. Unfortunately, since Don­
nelly wrote, the scientific data in the varying fields has radicallyaltered and many of the authoritative opinions upon which thelatter depended are, in light of modern research, no longer ten­able. This new definitive edition of Donnelly’s work thoroughly
revised by its editor, Mr. Egerton Sykes, himself an outstanding
Atlantean scholar, eliminates these drawbacks whilst maintain­
ing the basic tenets of Donnelly’s thesis; adding a few informa­tive notes at the conclusion of each chapter that bring the wholetreatise in line with the latest developments on the subject.
Particular reference must be made to the chapters concerning
the Deluge legends which have been supplemented by the inclu­
sion of more modern texts than were available in Donnelly’s
day. The revised Indian texts -drawn from the Vedas and Puranas
indeed constitute a valuable contribution to Atlantean literature.
I t is impossible to treat in detail the mass of erudite facts thatare contained in this admirable volume in which there is some­thing of interest for the most diverse student, but allusion must
be made to the interesting chapters on Artificial Cranial Deforma­tion and the one concerning the Alphabet which owing to thefact that Donnelly’s conclusions on this subject are no longer
tenable, had to be entirely rewritten by the Editor. Mr. Sykes
has prefaced the whole with a short but interesting biographicalnotice and this is supplemented by an appreciation of the great
American writer by H. S, Bellamy and Lewis Spence. In special
commendation, attenion must be drawn to the biographical notes
at the conclusion of the text, which is not only informative con­cerning the biographical sources of Donnelly’s earlier editions,
who was often careless in this respect, but also provides a sum­mary of works dealing with the subject from the time the latter(1882) wrote until the present day. It is typical of the E d ito r’s
indefatigable industry, of which the whole volume is a tribute.
The combination of the work of Donnelly, with the contributionof Mr. Sykes, provides a text book for Atlantean students thatfor long will not be displaced.

THE POSSIBILITY OF THE EGYPTIAN AND
ATLANTEAN CULTURES HAVING BEEN
CONTEMPORARY.

temples of Abydos would be most interesting to see.
Most
scientists are rather suspicious of prehistoric tales and wantsomething- more substantial than similarities in names to sup­port a theory. I must admit, it also sounds to me most dubious
than far away N orth American place-names should be of
Egyptian origin. I t is a long way for primitve Egyptian ships
to cross the ocean, and how could this people know there was aland to the W est?
We may assume there existed no inter­jacent islands at th at late period. My discoveries of the exis­
tence of extensive, now sunken, lands until late prehistory will
open unexpected possibilities, and I wish, therefore, to givethese my ideas such a stable foundation as possible.
W ith kindest regards and the best wishes, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
RENE MALAISE.
Witney,7th October, 1949.
Dear Dr. Malaise,
I have already acknowledged receipt of your letter of the10th September, 1949, and promised to reply to it as soon as
possible.
A fter you wrote to me you received the magazine contain­
ing the second part of my lecture and also a full list of Dr.
Rendel H a rris’a publications dealing with Egyptiari Place
Names.
If you are seriously interested in what I said, it isessential that, for a full understanding of this m atter, you must
read all of these booklets, in the order in which they were pub­lished. Reading one or two will not convince you. So far as
I know, there is no other archaelogical literature dealing with
Egypt in Britain.
Scientists are suspicious, as you rightly say, of mere tales,and so we ought to be, but I am quite sure that the evidence of
place-names is scientific. Place-naming is a Science and, so far
as these Egyptian derivations are concerned, it is not a mere
m atter of "sim ilarities in names.”
I t is much more compli­
cated than that, as you will see if you read all of Dr. H a rris’s
works on the subject, which I hope you will.
I am not at all surprised th a t you find it “ most dubious
th a t fa r away North American placed names should be of
Egyptian origin.”
Most people do.
Personally, I do not think it is at all impossible. 'There isabundant evidence th a t the Egyptians were capable of great
journeys by sea, and if our Sir Francis Drake could sail roundthe world in his “ Golden H ind,” I am sure the Egyptians could
cross the Atlantic. E arly Scandinavians reached North
America, as I am sure you well know.
I can see no reason to describe Egyptian ships as “ prim i­tive,” as you do. As early as 3000 B.C. King Sneferu construc­ted a navy of 60 ships, and if you look at representations ofQueen H atshepsut’s ships you will see th at they must have been60

as large as D rake’s “ Golden H ind.”
You ask: how could the Egyptians know there was a landin the West? That is a very interesting question indeed. 1
think it is quite likely th at they did not really know, but their
Solar religion, based on the apparent movements of the Sun,certainly led them to believe th a t the W est was the abode of
the Blessed, and so they went to find it. Even to-day—in thiscountry, at least—soldiers say “ He has gone W est” when theymean that one of their comrades has been killed. One ancientreference says th at beyond the Pillars of Hercules there is a
Great Ocean, and beyond it, a great land. The reference is in
one of the many books lying on my desk here as I write, but I
have no idea, at the moment, in which book it is. I will try to
remedy this later.
This “ knowledge” may have been only tradition andnothing more, although tradition is moist important. Perhaps
the American names and the Egyptian names may have had acommon Atlantean origin. Who knows? Personally, I am, atpresent, inclined to believe th at these E gyptian Place-names
came directly from Ancient Egypt, but that does not rule out
possibilities of deeper origins in common.
I advise you to read “ Ships as Evidence of the M igrationof Early C ulture,” by G. Elliot Smith (Manchester University
Press, 1917) and “ The Children of the Sun” by W. J. PerryfMethuen, 1923, or later editions). Dr. P erry claims th at the‘‘search for commodities regarded as amulets, givers of life, led
expeditions far and wide from Egypt. They sought copper,
certain woods, gold, tin, brass, silver and so forth, not in thesense of merchant adventurers expanding commerce, but tomeet religious and philosophical ideas of rulers intent uponsecuring immortality for themselves.
The commercial idea
came la te r.” (I quote from Mr. H arper Cory’s booklet “ The
Goddess at M argate,” recently published.)
Congratulating you on the very im portant discoveries you
have made, T am, with all good wishes and kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
P. Tv. COTJJGNON.
A Correction.
Dear Editor,
The printed report of the second part of ray lecture on
Egyptiar; Place Names, the proof of which I did not see, con­tained several p rin ter’s errors, as noted below. I hope thatreaders of the magazine will, at once, correct them in their copies.
1. Page 40, line 16, Stone should be Stones.
2. Page 43, line 3, a comma after the word so^ils insteadof a full stop.
<‘l. Page 44, line 18, Vostlings ought to be Voeilinqs.
4. Page 44, line 19, Vemlamiinium should read Yerulamium.
f). Page 45, first line, worried should read wearied.
P. L. COLLIGNON.
61

PROLEGOMENA TO THE STUDY OF MYTHS.
By E. SYKES.
The study of myths invites two alternative methods ofapproach. The first, and perhaps the easiest, is to take every
story at its face value, as telling of some fabulous event in the
distant past, without enquiring into its possible veracity or its
relationship to past events. The second, which has been adopted
here, is to endeavour to relate these tales to what is known of
the shadowy "beginnings of history, in the hope that it will bepossible to fit them into that three dimensional jig saw puzzle
which forms our cultural, historical and religious background.
The working of this out in detail will, naturally, take a longtime, but it is hoped that the modest beginnings in this work will
be of assistance to future students.
Myth may perhaps be described as the gossamer cloak offolk memory overlaying the bare bones of pre-history, and inattempting to evaluate it, consideration should be given to thepossibility that primitive man in telling these stories was not
guilty of deliberate misrepresentation of the past, but rather
that by his inability to trace the relationship between cause andeffect, or to distinguish between fact and prejudice, we are pre­sented with a series of pictures of history as seen through theeyes of children, which should be approached in an appropriatemanner.
In the endeavour to accomplish this the following tentative
sequence pattern of myth has been drawn up, which may assist
in the work of considering these legends in a new light.
The oldest stories which have come to us would appear to be
the creation myths. This is not because primitive man could be
expected to remember the actual creation, but rather because allthese stories postulate the emergence of humanity into a new life
after some great natural catastrophe, the memory of which re­mained in the mind of primitive man for many thousands ofyears. _ Naturally this does not apply to all creation myths, manyof which bear the imprint of the abstract religious philosophiesof the Hellenistic schools in the Middle East, and should be con­sidered rather as theological conceptions than as true folk
memory.
It is doubtful whether primitive man lived in damp anduncomfortable caverns because he preferred this manner of ex­
istence; the possibility of his having to seek refuge from somegreat disaster should not be lost sight of. So far no link has been
established between the cave paintings found in France andSpain and this period, nor have the petroglyphs of primitive
man lent themselves to elucidation, although the m atter was gone
into at some length bv (rerman scientists in the period between
the first and the second World Wars.
Next would come the legends relating to the m atriliar
system of life, when the Wise Woman of the Clan or Tribe wasjust beginning that evolntinn which reached its zenith when she
62

was the titular representative of the Great IMother Goddess, who,with her college of priestesses, attended the annual or bi-annual
fertility festivals, at which her last consort was slain and eilcharistically devoured, or at which her new consort was chosen andwith his cohort ritually fathered the next generation of RoyalChildren. The goddesses of this period are all virgins, and it is
to be supposed that the first sacred trinity consisted of Mother,
Daughter and Grand-daughter, the change over to Mother,
Father, and Son, or Father, Son and Spirit, dating to a muchlater period. The nadir of the Mother Goddess was reached when
her college of attendant priestesses had either become the covenof popular witchcraft or the sexless sisterhoods of modern re­ligions.
The fact that many goddesses assumed the character of theanimal totem of their Tribe, and that some, particularly in
Egypt, never proceeded further than this stage of development,
would place the choice of this distinction, which may also havecoincided with one of the signs of the Zodiac, at about thisperiod in history. A rough indication of the time when the
Mother Goddess began to give way to the Father God, is given by
the six hundred or more Deluge Legends scattered over the world.
Pre-diluvian gods are mainly fem ale; post-diluvian, mainly male.
That the change coincided with the switch over from the nomadic
pastoral life to the more settled agricultural life is reasonably
certain, but this also seems to have been accompanied not only by
the change in sex of certain major gods, but also by the transferof their functions to other gods.
On the other hand, however, it is of interest to note thatthe greatest antipathy towards the supremacy, or even theequality of women in any sphere, whether in the heavens or onearth, has always come from the Semitic tribes in and' to thesouth and east of the Fertile Crescent, as instanced by the atti­
tudes of Saint Paul, and, at a later date, of Mohammed. Whether
this dislike is racial, climatic, or pathological is still uncertain,
the fact remains that it is still as much a part of the social con­sciousness of some parts of the world as ever it was two thousand
or more years ago.
W ith the eclipse of the Matriachy the scene was set for theappearance of the Culture Hero, and for his uprising from thestatus of a mere tribal leader to that of personal representativeof the High Gods and, later, to a place amongst them. I t is tothis period that the majority of myths seem to belong, and theirelucidation is much hampered by our lack of knowledge whether
the names which have come down to us are hereditary titles,
military or other ranks, or even nicknames, and also whether they
apply to one man, to a family, or even to a whole tribe. Lastly
there is the difficulty of ascertaining what deeds and dignities
were taken over from the gods of the defeated by those of theconquerors and also which of their attributes were demoted tobeing evil powers.
In the last century' the favourite of the mythographer was63the Sun God. but he actually only appears on the scene after the]\Iother Goddesses and the Moon Goddesses or Gods. However,
the real point is that, in the opinion of the writer, the conceptionof the abstract god is of recent date, the early gods all having
evolved by the promotion of human beings to heavenly status.
If the abstract gods of savage tribes are traced suiBciently far
back into history there should always be a human being at thefoundation of the cult.
I t is of interest to note that the Deluge Legends referred
to above, seem themselves to fall into a common pattern, on thefollowing lin e s;—(a) The tribal deity is dipleased with humanity on
account of its behaviour and threatens punishment.
(b) There are signs and portents in the heavens, such as
the changing of the course of one of the heavenly bodies.
(c) The culture hero is thus warned of approachingdisaster, or is informed by the high gods, and decides to flee
to a high mountain, construct a place of refuge, or to builda ship.
(e) The wicked and impious mock him for his prepara­tions.
(e) The tim*e of trial begins. There are cyclones andhurricanes, quantities of rocks and stones falling from above,
volcanic eruptions, followed by vast fires, which are only
extinguished by heavy rains and the uprising of the watersof the great deep, which causes a flood on a large scale.
(f) The survivors from the disaster, usually the firstnarrators of the story, set about the founding of a new race.
As in many cases the age, sex and relationship of the fellow
survivors, are not siiitable for this purpose, the most des­perate expedients — of which incest is the most usual —have to be resorted to for this purpose.
The period of the great myths, of the gods and goddesses
whose adventures are known to the young of all races, a periodof which one phase is found in the vast body of oriental tradition
to be known as the 1,001 Nights, and another in the Homeric
Epics, lies between the time of the Deluge legends and the re­corded beginnings of history. I t is made up of direct folk mem­ory of past events, of the stories brought back by sailors andmerchants, by the stories told by the priests of the various faiths,
the whole overclouded by a haze of abstract religious philoso­
phies, which becomes more intense wherever the influence ofChristianity or Islam has been greatest.
The fact that in the process the most sacred rituals havebecome children’s games, mimes', folk dances, popular supersti­
tions, or even incidents of the Harlequinade, is not of essential
import as had it not been for this evolution they would have
perished for ever. One of the lessons of history is that nothing
ever retains its original status for long and that the high rituaJof to-day may well be danced by school children to-morrow,
64 :MARKHAM HOUSE PRESS, LTD.
The Works of H. T. SHERLOCK
Miss Helen Travers Sherlock, who was the associate of Dr.
Eendel H arris for many years, has herself published several
books on our cultural heritage, of which the following are stillavailable:—
The Wryly Stones. A description of a remarkable seriesof carved stones found some years ago at Cannock. 4/9d. post
free or 70 cents U.S.
St. Mildred. The story of the bringing of the a rt of bronze
casting to B ritain from Egypt. Price 2/9d, post free or
40 cents U.S.
St. Joseph and the Saintes Maries. The proof th at these■were actually Isis and Nepthys, the goddesses of Ancient Egypt,is here convincingly set forth. Price 4/- post free or 60 centsU.S.

DOWSINGBY

PIERRE BEASSE.
The a rt of Dowsing or W ater Divining, known from theearliest times of recorded history, has always been surrounded
w ith an atmosphere of the mysterious and the unseen.
M. Beasse, one of the best known members of the fra ter­nity of Dowsers in Prance, here presents in simple and straight­
forw ard language a treatise on the subject, putting its appli­
cation within the reach of almost anybody who cares to spend
a little time and trouble in learning how to do it.
This m anual is cordially recommended to all those who are
in any way interested. Price, post free: 12/- or $1.80 in the
U.S.A.

THE GODDESS AT MARGATEby

HARPER CORY.
The discovery in the chalk hillside at M argate, of a typicalE gyptian mastaba, or rock tomb, with the walls of its chambers
covered by a rem arkable series of shell mosaics, is here
described in full, w ith sixteen pages of photographic illustra­tions. The author was an associate of W. J. Perry, famous forhis work, CHILDREN OF THE SUN.
Post Free 2s. 9d. or 40 cents.