AMERICA SHAPED LIKE A TREE.
The ancient Mexicans likened North America to a Tree—a stupendous Mulberry Tree—"planted in the land known to us today as South America" (n. 5).
The Chinese geographers or mythologists teach that at a distance of 30,000 le (10,000 miles) to the east there is a land 10,000 le (over 3,000) miles in width.
Now the land referred to must be North America, for, 10,000 miles east from southern China brings us to California; and we further find that North America, now reached, is 10,000 le, or over 3,000 miles in width, measuring from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
The Chinese accounts further call our eastern realm a Fu-Sang (or Helpful Mulberry) land.
A Mulberry land (3,000 miles wide) is There, say the Chinese.
The Mulberry land (3,000 miles wide) is Here, say the Mexicans.
Like the Mexicans, the Chinese sages declare that there is an enormous Tree—the Fu (or helpful) Sang Tree—in the eastern Mulberry land 3,000 miles wide.
As just remarked, the Chinese call the enormous Eastern Tree a Sang, and the Mexicans call their enormous Tree a Beb (both terms standing for the Mulberry,—a fact to which no writer hitherto has directed, or called, attention.)
Observe (see Figure 2) that at Tehauntepec (a little west of Yucatan) our continent narrows down to a width of 100 miles (or 300 Chinese le).
The Mexicans say that North America is a Tree, and that it has a correspondingly enormous Trunk,—which at Tehauntepec measures 100 miles (or 300 Chinese le).
Now the Chinese writers declare that the enormous Mulberry in the region east of the Flowery Kingdom has "a Trunk of 300 le" (or 100 miles.) What a prodigious dimension! (see note 6.)
A Mulberry Tree, with a "Trunk of 300 le," is There, say the Chinese.
A Mulberry Tree, with a Trunk of 300 le, is Here, say the Mexicans.
Such a stupendous Tree ought to have enormous Branches to match the Trunk, and we are not surprised when informed that our monarch of the forest goes up—up—up even to the Place of the 10 Suns (in the Arctic zone.)
The One true sun is, of course, high above the mountain ranges, or "Branches" of our Continental Mulberry.
But the extra Nine are false or delusive and mere reflections of the true sun on fog or vapor. The Chinese account, truly enough, states that they bear wu, and this term stands for "blackness," "inky," or "dark" (Williams dict. p. 1058.)
This identical term wu also stands for black or dark fowls, such as the raven, blackbird, and crow; and one Oriental scholar, dwelling indeed in Japan, assures us that each of the Nine Suns bears a Crow! We are seriously informed, that "all bear—literally cause to ride—a Crow" (note 7.)
As well might it be asserted that because wu signifies "black," the Nine Wu borne by the Suns must be nine blacks or negroes! The supposition that Nine Crows are meant is absurd and contradicted by the luminaries themselves.
Figure 2. Our Continental American Tree.
Strange to say, the "luminaries" emit no radiance! The light that is in them is darkness, and they are fitting symbols for commentators—black, white, yellow, and green—who have written learnedly and positively on them without understanding a thing about them. Perhaps it might be well, apart from its inconvenience, when writing about any nation, place, or natural object, to ascertain the position and name of the continent in which the subject of study is situated. Of course we are not so unreasonable as to insist that we must really comprehend a matter before getting up to explain it to others, but the positions of continents dealt with ought, as a rule, to be clearly ascertained. In the present instance we have faithfully followed the ancient directions and groped our way into the presence of the Nine blind suns. Gazing at their beaming disks we perceive how the term wu (black or dark) applies to them. The color of Crows is there, but not the living birds themselves. It is the story of the Three Black Crows advanced another stage on its career of misrepresentation, and magnified Threefold. The Nine Suns have neither swallowed nor disgorged Nine Black Crows. But they are certainly open to the charge of having feasted too freely on diet no less dark and deceptive.
They're the color of Crows, say the Ancients.
They bear Nine Crows, say the Moderns.
The truth is that the false suns furnish neither heat nor light and really consist of dark (wu) vapor.
The Nine are mere reflections of the low-declined, true sun on "surrounding" frozen haze or mist, in extremely cold weather. When this icy fog seems—merely seems, of course,—to touch and surround the true sun, the illusions known as false suns are apt to appear. They obey some optical code of laws or signals understood best perhaps by themselves, and will sometimes disappear in a moment like a flock of timid "sun birds" (or wild geese—see note 8.) Their design apparently is to cheer and escort their illustrious sire in his otherwise lonesome trip through a frozen, desolate zone. Some Chinese accounts call them "children"—"children of the sun," etc., etc.
There is a reference to this frozen mist, in Verne's "Fur Country," reading as follows: "It is not a mist or fog,' he said to his companions, 'it is frost-rime,' a dense vapor which remains in a state of complete congelation. But whether a fog or a frozen mist, this phenomenon was none the less to be regretted for it rose a hundred feet at least above the level of the sea, and it was so opaque that the colonists could not see each other when only two or three paces apart."—Danvers' translation, p. 288.
It should be remarked that the frozen haze which breeds the false suns is found only "at the bottom of," or "below," the mountain ranges or "branches" of our North American Mulberry Tree. The false suns speedily disappear from the view of the observer who climbs up out of the thick stratum of frozen fog or mist and ascends the nearest "Branch."
Such observations are completely in accord with the ancient Chinese declaration that Nine of the suns are to be seen "below" (hia) or "at the bottom of" the Branches, and One "above" the Branches. The suns (see note 9) are not said to be "in the Branches." Nine are "below" (hia) and One "above" (shang); a remark as true today as it ever was.
The "Morea" (about fifty miles long), in Greece, was so named because it was supposed to resemble the leaf of a morus or mulberry. And similarly North America was considered by Mexican and Chinese mythologists to exhibit some resemblance to a mulberry,—the Helpful Mulberry (or Fu-Sang). The one comparison is just as fanciful or reasonable as the other. Nor can it be denied that North America presents some likeness to a Tree,—towering aloft like the Tree of the Prophet Daniel, which was seen from the ends of the earth. Here Columbia lights up her Tree and welcomes the Neighbors with a smile.
The Chinese note concerning the extra suns and moons, which frequently flit about and disappear, like so many sun-birds, connects them with the "Branches" of the Fu (or Fu-Sang) Tree of amazing proportions, which flourishes in the Region east of the Eastern Sea. The Fu-Sang land, 10,000 le (or 3,000 miles wide) is said to be 30,000 le (10,000 miles) to the east of China; and this indeed is the distance from Canton to California. A lesser distance (20,000 le, or 7,000 miles) lies between Northern China and the American Mulberry land due east. It is in America that we are directed to search for the surplus assemblage of suns. And do we not find both them and Fu-Sang? (See note 10.) In what respect is the Chinese account inaccurate thus far? We are informed that "in the water is a large tree having nine suns," etc. The Trunk of this prodigious Tree, which is more or less immersed in the Eastern Sea, furnishes the surprising dimension of "300 le." And rising above a Valley of Hot Springs (readily found in Nicaragua) the Tree proceeds upward and rears aloft its exalted Branches in the "Place of the Ten Suns."
The vast mountain-system, with its tree-like "Trunk" and "Branches," on which the many suns and moons are seen to alight or gambol, is called the "Sun and Moon shan" (shan signifying "mountain or range") in both the Chinese text and the translation (see note 11.) It is identical with our continental stony Mulberry and constitutes the form of North America. Unfortunately our esteemed translator was utterly in the dark concerning the sense of the curious statements regarding the manifold suns and moons and even suggested that an explanation should be sought for in connection with the Philippine Islands. But the Tree, or range of the Sun and Moon, is plainly in North America. And here are the flocks of Suns roosting among the Branches.