26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. CO 



winds and currents of the Atlantic are ever ready to carry voyagers 

 from the African shores in the direction of the Caribbean Sea. 



It may be observed that, althoiigli we fail to reach definite conclu- 

 sions as to contact or relationships, the above instances are not 

 merely those of simple resemblances as is the case with the multitude 

 of examples cited by Donnelly in his Atlantis, but their interest is 

 enhanced by the fact that in most cases the resemblances are given 

 additional support and claim to attention on account of geographical 

 relationships. However, none of the examples measure up to the 

 highest standard of evidence and do not, therefore, take the rank of 

 proofs. 



Even more diversified and reuiarkable are the correspondences 

 existing between the architectural and sculptural 

 Mexican Analogies remains of Middle America and those of Southeast- 

 ern Asia. In both regitms the chief structures of the 

 cities are pyramids ascended by four steep stairways of stone, bor- 

 dered by serpent balustrades, and surmounted by temples which em- 

 ploy the oti'set arch and have sanctuaries, symbolic altar sculptures, 

 and inscriptions. The snouted masks of the Maya sculptures have 

 an insinuating way of suggestiug the trunk of the elephant and the 

 upturned jaw of the mythical serpent is equally reminiscent of the 

 treatment of the cobra jaw in the Far East. Temple walls are embel- 

 lished with a profusion of carved and modeled ornaments and sur- 

 mounted by roof crests and cupolas of elaborate and even pagoda- 

 like design. There are present also in Yucatan, as in Cambodia, as 

 supports for the great stone tables, balustrades, and lintels, dwarfish 

 Atlantean sculptured figures, and it is especially noteworthy that 

 some of these figures on this side represent whiskered 

 Whiskered Men in j^^^j^ 'j'j^g i^ue sijrnificance of all this and more has 



Yucatan Carvings '^ . . , . „ 



been sought again and again without satisfactory 

 result. That some of these analogies should occur between works of 

 the Antipodes renders the mystery more deep and might seem 

 utterly to discredit the use of this class of evidences as proof 

 of contact of peoples or close racial relationships. And yet is it 

 an impossibility that the energetic builders of Cambodia. Java, and 

 India, 2,000 years ago, should have had seagoing craft that might 

 encircle the world ? ^ We are compelled to allow that culture trans- 



1 The feasibility of early south Asiatic communication with distant lands in early 

 centuries of the Christian era, or even at an earlier date, is distinctly suggested by the 

 story of Chau (500 A. D.). " The ships which sail the Southern Sea 

 [Early Voyages] and south of it are like houses. When their sails are spread they 

 are like great clouds in the sky. Their rudders are several tens of 

 feet long. A single ship carrier several luindred men. It has stored on board a year's 

 supply of grain. They feed pigs and ferment liquors. There is no account of dead or 

 living, no going back to the mainland, when once they have entered the dark blue sea. 

 When on board the gong sounds the day, the animals drink gluttonly, guests and hosts by 

 turn forgetting their perils. To the people on board all is hidden, mountains, landmarks, 

 the countries of the foreigners, all are lost in space." — Ilirth and Rockhill, Chau-Ju-kua, 

 pp. 83-34. 



