Compare the following stories:
+——————————————————+—————————————————+ | THE ASIATIC STORY. | THE AMERICAN STORY. | | | | | In Hindoo mythology Urvasi came | Wampee, a great hunter, once | | down from heaven and became the | came to a strange prairie, | | wife of the son of Buddha only on | where he heard faint sounds of | | condition that two pet rams | music, and looking up saw a | | should never be taken from her | speck in the sky, which proved | | bedside, and that she should | itself to be a basket | | never behold her lord undressed. | containing twelve most | | The immortals, however, wishing | beautiful maidens, who, on | | Urvasi back in heaven, contrived | reaching the earth, forthwith | | to steal the rams; and, as the | set themselves to dance. He | | king pursued the robbers with his | tried to catch the youngest, | | sword in the dark, the lightning | but in vain; ultimately he | | revealed his person, the compact | succeeded by assuming the | | was broken, and Urvasi | disguise of a mouse. He was | | disappeared. This same story is | very attentive to his new wife, | | found in different forms among | who was really a daughter of | | many people of Aryan and Turanian | one of the stars, but she | | descent, the central idea being | wished to return home, so she | | that of a man marrying some one | made a wicker basket secretly, | | of an aerial or aquatic origin, | and, by help of a charm she | | and living happily with her till | remembered, ascended to her | | he breaks the condition on which | father. | | her residence with him depends, | | | stories exactly parallel to that | | | of Raymond of Toulouse, who | | | chances in the hunt upon the | | | beautiful Melusina at a fountain, | | | and lives with her happily until | | | he discovers her fish-nature and | | | she vanishes. | | +——————————————————+—————————————————+
If the legend of Cadmus recovering Europa, after she has been carried away by the white bull, the spotless cloud, means that "the sun must journey westward until he sees again the beautiful tints which greeted his eyes in the morning," it is curious to find a story current in North America to the effect that a man once had a beautiful daughter, 'whom he forbade to leave the lodge lest she should be carried off by the king of the buffaloes; and that as she sat, notwithstanding, outside the house combing her hair, "all of a sudden the king of the buffaloes came dashing on, with his herd of followers, and, taking her between his horns, away be cantered over plains, plunged into a river which bounded his land, and carried her safely to his lodge on the other side," whence she was finally recovered by her father.
Games.—The same games and sports extended from India to the shores of Lake Superior. The game of the Hindoos, called pachisi, is played upon a cross-shaped board or cloth; it is a combination of checkers and draughts, with the throwing of dice, the dice determining the number of moves; when the Spaniards entered Mexico they found the Aztecs playing a game called patolli, identical with the Hindoo pachisi, on a similar cross-shaped board. The game of ball, which the Indians of America were in the habit of playing at the time of the discovery of the country, from California to the Atlantic, was identical with the European chueca, crosse, or hockey.
One may well pause, after reading this catalogue, and ask himself, wherein do these peoples differ? It is absurd to pretend that all these similarities could have been the result of accidental coincidences.
These two peoples, separated by the great ocean, were baptized alike in infancy with blessed water; they prayed alike to the gods; they worshipped together the sun, moon, and stars; they confessed their sins alike; they were instructed alike by an established priesthood; they were married in the same way and by the joining of hands; they armed themselves with the same weapons; when children came, the man, on both continents, went to bed and left his wife to do the honors of the household; they tattooed and painted themselves in the same fashion; they became intoxicated on kindred drinks; their dresses were alike; they cooked in the same manner; they used the same metals; they employed the same exorcisms and bleedings for disease; they believed alike in ghosts, demons, and fairies; they listened to the same stories; they played the same games; they used the same musical instruments; they danced the same dances, and when they died they were embalmed in the same way and buried sitting; while over them were erected, on both continents, the same mounds, pyramids, obelisks, and temples. And yet we are asked to believe that there was no relationship between them, and that they had never had any ante-Columbian intercourse with each other.
If our knowledge of Atlantis was more thorough, it would no doubt appear that, in every instance wherein the people of Europe accord with the people of America, they were both in accord with the people of Atlantis; and that Atlantis was the common centre from which both peoples derived their arts, sciences, customs, and opinions. It will be seen that in every case where Plato gives us any information in this respect as to Atlantis, we find this agreement to exist. It existed in architecture, sculpture, navigation, engraving, writing, an established priesthood, the mode of worship, agriculture, the construction of roads and canals; and it is reasonable to suppose that the same correspondence extended down to all the minor details treated of in this chapter.
CHAPTER III.
AMERICAN EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE OR ATLANTIS.
1. ON the monuments of Central America there are representations of bearded men. How could the beardless American Indians have imagined a bearded race?