THE HUMAN SPECIES. 223 



is from this high order of ancestors, it appears most 

 probable, that the pyramidal Moral's, and other monu- 

 ments, have been derived ; for in the Malay peninsula, 

 and where that stem has resided the longest, all the 

 religious structures they acknowledge are bell shaped, 

 notoriously made of straw, rushes, mats, and poles ; or 

 at most, they are of a Mongolic character, built with 

 wood and mortar. Now, if we compare the Egyptian 

 pyramids, the ruins of the supposed temples of Belus 

 or tower of Babylon, and of Baradan in Persia, it will 

 be found, that one of them certainly had four towers, 

 and from the shape of the ruins, it had also a projection 

 or propylon, characteristics which mostly occur again, 

 and with the same cardinal aspects, as the Great Morai 

 of Suka, in Java, of Temurri, at Poppara : that at Atte 

 Hura, and the base of the Fiatookas, like the Mooau at 

 Tonga, and others in Polynesia: there are occasionally 

 similarly constructed successive terraces, forming pyra- 

 midal elevations in the Marquesas, and elsewhere, and 

 these are again repeated in America, with exactly the 

 same forms one of these, at Cholula, exceeding in 

 area and in cubic quantity of artificial accumulation, 

 both the great tower of Belus, and the great pyramid 

 of Cheops, taken together.* The forms of all these 

 structures indicate a common religious system, more 

 ancient than the extant idolatries ; they may be claimed 



* The base is square, and covers forty-four acres, the 

 upper platform somewhat more than one acre. The eleva- 

 tion at present is 177 feet ; but this is partially diminished 

 by the ruinous state of the lowest platform, and is exclusive 

 of the temple which adorns the summit. 



