People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1897 — WEES MOO AND THE EGYPTIAN SPHINX [ARTICLE]

WEES MOO AND THE EGYPTIAN SPHINX

(EL.M3KT H usb A in) In January Akbna.) In the Review of Reviews for July, 1895, Dr. Albert Shaw made the rather startling statement that. Dr. Le Plongeon has discovered the original site of the Garden of Eden. That America should be the first home of man and the birthplace of civilization was considered by some as very funny; by others the statement was taken as rank heresy; but the result was that Dr. Shaw’s little mention of Dr Le Plongeon’s forthcoming book had a wide circulation.

It has now been my good fortune to read the book, and better still to read it with the learned author at my elbow, ready to answer all questions and meet all objections; a ten day trip across the Atlantic making this possible. Dr. Le Plongeon may be sixty, seventy, or ninety years of age. He is oeeomingly bald, has a long, snowy, patriarchal beard, a bright blue eye, and a beautiful brick-dust complexion. When every passenger on board had lost appetite and animation, this sturdy old man trod the upper deck and laughed at the storm as the winds sang through the cordage of the trembling ship. For twenty-five years Dr. Le Plongeon has made a continuous study of archaeology in America. In all his work and all his travel, his wife has been his faithful coadjutor, collaborator, and companion. Madame Le Plongeon is a rare woman; she is possessed of that “excellent thing in woman,” and when she gave us a little lecture on board ship it was voted a great treat. My private opinion is that she is of a little better fibre than her husband, in which remark I am quite sure I should be backed up by the learned doctor himself. This worthy couple spent twelve years in Yucatan, much of the time in the forests, living with the Mayas; and they probably have now a better knowledge of the Maya language thau any living English-speaking man. The results of Dr. and Madame. Le Plongeon’s investigations are now set forth in a handsome volume of about three hundred pages, illustrated by many photographs and drawings. The work is so complete a contradiction of all our ideas as to the early history of civilization that its first effect is to render speechless all superficial criticism. And then the piling up of proof, intricate, complex, requiring a knowledge of six languages to be comprehended, is of a nature that places the book quite beyond the range of a magazine review. But briefly stated, the points made are a confirmation of Plato’s statement that there existed about nine thousand years ago a chain of ten islands, of which the Isle of Atlantis was the largest, stretching across the Atlantic Ocean. These islands contained a population of sixtyfour million souls, and were inhabited by the Maya race, a highly civilized people. They were acquainted with the size of the earth, knew that it was round like an orange, slightly flattened at the poles, had a knowledge of the higher mathematics, astronomy, and in certain respects were the peers of our best specimens of civilization today. The Atlantian record is proved from four different Maya authors whose works Dr. Le Plongeon haa deciphered. The capital of the Maya 9 both "Queen Moo and the Sxjptian Sphinx." by Auguetue Le Plongeon. Pp. 360, with 300 en-

before and after the cataclysm was in Yucatan. From there the Mayas exercised an influence on the inhabitants of the earth not unlike that of England today. They were great navigators. and moved freely back and forth from America to the continents, both east and west. They* established colonies in Chaldea, Nubia, and also in various points in India. The source of civilization of the Brahmans is unknown, but Dr. Le Plongeon finds many points of resemblance iu point of manners, customs, and religion that seem to permit one to trace the higher thought of India to Mayach. In every hundred Maya words ten are pure Greek. The Greek alphabet was a direct importation from America, and the pagan Greek religion is a modified form of that of the Mayas. That we know so little of the history of the past is owing to just one particular impulse of humanity, i. e., the desire of one religious body to destroy the works of all the others. On the law books of England to day are statutes giving the right to the authorities to publicly burn books that tend to disparage the prevailing religion. The smoke of public bonfires in France, scarcely blown away. The present century has witnessed the burning in America of convents with their entire contents, which included libraries and records. This of coure may be said to be following an example set by Catholics the world over, but it does not mitigate offense. Saint Paul made a public bonfire in the streets of Ephesus of books and manuscripts which he considered tended to heresy; moreover he gloried in the act, and Luke iu telling about it in the Book of Acts sees nothing to apologize for or to conceal. The Spanish Inquisition destroyed the great library of the Moors at Cordova; and in Mexico, Central America, and South America the Spanish Catholics applied the torch without ruth to whatever seemed to them to have a religious significance. We know how the Alexandria Library with its priceless contents was destroyed, and we know somewhat of the world’s loss in consequence; but we can only guess with the author of “Salambo” the magnificence of Carthage wiped from the face of earth by the Romans. These same Romans mistook the beauteous marbles of Greece for graven gods and tumbled them from their pedestals, and these broken fragments now animate the artistic world.

In the fifteenth century the Spaniards overran Yucatan, sacked the temples, and destroyed all books, parchments, and inscriptions that seemed to them to have a religious or historical nature, the intent being to force Christianity upon the people and make them forget the past. The result was that millions of the inhabitants were killed, some embraced, or pretended to embrace, the new religion, and others escaped to the forests/ where their descendants still live and try to hold intact their ancient beliefs. These natives are exceedingly reticent in their dealings with the whites, and it was only by living with them long years and thus securing their confidence that Dr. Le Plongeon was able to gain access to various records, and to acquire that knowledge which has enabled him to decipher their inscriptions. Accepting the proofs Dr. Le Plongeon brings forward, America was the first home of civilization. From America knowledge spread east and we9t. England got her religion and ideas from America and Americans. Dr. Le Plongeon explains the mystery of the Sphinx to his own satisfaction, at least. Anyway. the work is intensely interesting, even to a layman,' and in its bold statements is sure to awaken into life a deal of dozing thought, and some right lively opposition as well.