came across the ocean from the rising sun. He had power over the elements and tempests; the trees of the forests would recede to make room for him (cutting down the trees); the animals used to crouch before him (domesticated animals); lakes and rivers became solid for him (boats and bridges); and he taught the use of agriculture and magic. Like him, Bochica, the great law-giver of the Muyscas, and son of the sun—he who invented for them the calendar and regulated their festivals—had a white beard, a detail in which all the American culture-heroes agree. The “Same” of Brazil was probably the “Zamna” of Yucatan.
ELEPHANT
MOUND
,
WISCONSIN
.
4. We find in America numerous representations of the elephant. We are forced to one of two conclusions: either the monuments date back to the time of the mammoth in North America, or these people held intercourse at some time in the past with races who possessed the elephant, and from whom they obtained pictures of that singular animal. Plato tells us that the Atlanteans possessed great numbers of elephants.
There are in Wisconsin a number of mounds of earth representing different animals-men, birds, and quadrupeds.
ELEPHANT
PIPE
,
LOISA
COUNTY
,
IOWA
.
Among the latter is a mound representing an elephant, “so perfect in its proportions, and complete in its representation of an elephant, that its builders must have been well acquainted with all the physical characteristics of the animal which they delineated.” We copy the representation of this mound on page 168.
On a farm in Louisa County, Iowa, a pipe was ploughed up which also represents an elephant. We are indebted to the valuable work of John T.
Short (“The North Americans of Antiquity,” p. 530) for a picture of this singular object. It was found in a section where the ancient mounds were very abundant and rich in relics. The pipe is of sandstone, of the ordinary Mound- Builder’s type, and has every appearance of age and usage. There can be no doubt of its genuineness. The finder had no conception of its archaeological value.
In the ruined city of Palenque we find, in one of the palaces, a stucco bass-relief of a priest. His elaborate head-dress or helmet represents very faithfully the head of an elephant. The cut on page 169 is from a drawing made by Waldeck.
The decoration known as “elephant-trunks” is found in many parts of the ancient ruins of Central America, projecting from above the door-ways of the buildings.
In Tylor’s “Researches into the Early History of Mankind,” p. 313, I find a remarkable representation of an elephant, taken from an ancient Mexican manuscript. It is as follows:
MEXICAN
REPRESENTATION
OF
ELEPHANT
.
CHAPTER IV.
CORROBORATING CIRCUMSTANCES.
1. Lenormant insists that the human race issued from Ups Merou, and adds that some Greek traditions point to “this locality—particularly the expression me’ropes a?’newpoi, which can only mean ‘the men sprung from Merou.’” (“Manual,” p.21.)
Theopompus tells us that the people who inhabited Atlantis were the Meropes, the people of Merou.
2. Whence comes the word Atlantic? The dictionaries tell us that the ocean is named after the mountains of Atlas; but whence did the Atlas mountains get their name?
“The words Atlas and Atlantic have no satisfactory etymology in any language known to Europe. They are not Greek, and cannot be referred to any known language of the Old World. But in the Nahuatl language we find immediately the radical a, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top of the head. (Molina, “Vocab. en lengua Mexicana y Castellana.”) From this comes a series of words, such as atlan—on the border of or amid the water— from which we ‘have the adjective Atlantic. We have also atlaca, to combat, or be in agony; it means likewise to hurl or dart from the water, and in the preterit makes Atlaz. A city named Atlan existed when the continent was discovered by Columbus, at the entrance of the Gulf of Uraba, in Darien. With a good harbor, it is now reduced to an unimportant pueblo named Acla.” (Baldwin’s “Ancient America,” p.
179.)
Plato tells us that Atlantis and the Atlantic Ocean were named after Atlas, the eldest son of Poseidon, the founder of the kingdom.
