The consonants most used are l, t, x, z; next the sounds tl and tz; but l, the most frequent used, is never found at the beginning of a word.
The radicals a, atl, which signify water, atlan, on the border or amid the water, give us the adjective Atlantic, pertaining to the land, Aztlan (or Atlantis), in the midst of the water. We have also atlaca, to hurl or dart from the water, whose preterite makes atlaz. In the time of Columbus a city named Atlan existed on the Gulf of Darien, with a good harbor, but now it is only a small pueblo named Acla.
Undoubtedly we have reached the fountain-head. The nearest point of land from the Island of “Atlantis” was the Atlas Mountains, which at that distance would seem to be darted up from the water; from their Atlantis, in the midst of the water. One has but to look on the map of Mexico to-day, and see that my theory is supported by such words as Tlascoran, Tlascala, Tlatlanquitepec, Tlascopan, Tenochtitlan, Chialinitzla, Yxtacamaxtitlan, Popocatapetl, etc., and scores of others, which prove that those combinations of liquids and consonants are at home only in the Nahuatl countries; ergo, the Atlas Mountains and Atlantic Ocean and “Atlantis” were named by these people before their continent was destroyed.
VI.
The First Men of America.
──────
“Antiquity appears to have begun
Long after their primeval race was run.”
Time is the only alembic to test the true character of great men or deeds. Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe and Hugo are the few select representatives whom the world acknowledges as its spokesmen. Shakespeare was in his grave a hundred years before he spoke authoritatively to the world, and with Dante it was no better. Ages had passed away before the seven cities of Greece warred for the honor of Homer’s birthplace, but for twenty-six centuries has the “Siege of Troy” stood out in profile as the model epic of the world, but of doubtful veracity because of its antiquity; but Dr. Schliemann’s excavations seem destined yet to find the funeral pyre of Patroclus, surrounded by the remains of Trojan captives.
Even within the last twelve months has the French archæologist, M. Marcel Dieulafay, brought to light the ancient city of Susa, and we may now behold the palace of Artaxerxes Mnemon, whose foundation was laid by Xerxes I. 485 B.C.; and now, after twenty-three centuries, the Bible student may take his Bible in his hand and turn to the Book of Esther and read, while the guide in the ancient capital of Persia points to this spot where Mordecai sat, to that spot where Haman was hanged, to this Court where the lovely Esther was crowned queen, and whence the sorrowing Vashti departed, as the unfortunate Hebe, cupbearer of Jove, before the victorious Ganymede.
Plato recorded the sad fate of Atlantis nearly five hundred years before Christ, and Solon had recorded the same in a poem two hundred years before. Plato says the expedition against Egypt took place during the reigns of the Athenian kings, Cecrops and Erechtheus, and according to the “Marble of Paros,” those kings ruled in 1582 B.C. and 1409 B.C., which is not a great deal more ancient than the siege of Troy.