174: TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MARCH 1, 



over another, but on solid blocks of masonry, the roofs of the 

 lower rooms having been used as hanging gardens. The grand 

 entrance that leads into the rooms on the ground lloor is remark- 

 ably interesting, for over the doorway is a tableau which is noth- 

 ing less than a representation of the mythical account of the 

 creation of the world, corresponding exactly to what we re-ad in 

 the first chapter of the Manava Dharma Sastra, a book conii)iled 

 from the works of the Brahmins about loOO years B.C. In that 

 chapter we read : " The Supreme Being having resolved to make 

 the divers creatures come forth from his own corporeal substance 

 first produced fhe waters" (a representation of rip})ling water 

 forms the rim of the tableau) " and in them deposited a product- 

 ive seed. This germ became an egg " (as we see over the door 

 in the midst or centre of the water) " brilliant as gold, re- 

 splendent as a star with a thousand rays" (so the egg in the 

 tableau is surrounded by rays). "And in the egg was repro- 

 duced the Supreme Being under the form of Brahma, the ances- 

 tor of all beings." The egg in the tableau likewise lias a figure 

 in it ; and on each side of the egg there is an inscription that is 

 Avritten with Egyptian letters in the Maya language. According 

 to Champollion le jeune this character G'^ corresponds to the 

 Latin II, and tiiis Egyptian sign \ or ^=^ to the Latin M, 

 and in plate XIL of his text-book we find these very signs trans- 

 lated by him engendered — manifested. In the tableau, for the 

 symmetry of the drawing, the word is four times repeated, and 

 means Mehen, the broken line representing the water, having the 

 phonetic value of N, in Mayax (ancient Yucatan) as in Egypt ; 

 and Mehen means in the Maya language, the son, the engendered^ 



But that is not all. Eusebius tells us that the Egyptians 

 represented the Creator of the world, Avhom they called Kneph, 

 under a human form with the flesh painted blue, a belt sur- 

 rounding his waist, liolding a sceptre in his liand, his head being 

 adorned with a royal head-dress ornamented with a plume. 

 Strange to say, the figure within the egg yet preserves traces ol 

 blue i)aint, and blue was emblematic of holiness among the 

 Mayas, as it seems to have been in Egypt and elsewhere ; the 

 Indian God Vishnu was painted blue. The figure in the egg 

 has likewise a belt, a badge in the hand, and the head adorned 

 with a large plume of feathers. Eusebius also informs us that 

 Kneph, the Creator, was re|>resented emblematically by the 

 Egyptians as a serpent, and called the good genius {AyaOodai- 

 IXGov). Knejjh is equivalent to Ka-neph, and no doubt also to 

 Can-neh, which is a Maya word meaning dragon, serpent. 



The background of the tableau, within the egg, behind the- 

 figure, represents the scales of the serpent's skin. Moreover,. 



