Masonry Eleven Thousand Years Ago In America.

mediaeval cathedrals of Europe , or of King Solomon s Temple , or of the Great Pyramid , or even in Paradise Lodge , No . 1 , of the Garden of Eden , with Adam as Worshipful Master , we crave pardon for directing their atten .

Hon to Bro . Dr . Le Plongeon ' s " Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches , ll , 5 0 Years Ago , " just published by Bro . Robert Macoy . * This volume is a handsomely illustrated and finely printed one , and challenges the attention of the antiquary and the Freemason .

The reader is likely aware that the Mayas and Quiches were races or tribes of Indians ( so-called ) inhabiting Yucatan and Guatemala . Their origin is unknown , or only surmised . At one period they were quite highly civilized , but like the peoples of India , Egypt , Greece , and Rome ,

they rose and fell , and have left nothing behind them to tell the tale of their achievements and civilization , save a few fragmentary architectural remains , and equally fragmentary manuscripts . Bro . Le Plongeon has been a diligent student of these , as John L . Stephens and other explorers

and antiquaries were before him ; but he thinks he has found what they did not find , evidence of a remarkably remote antiquity , of the highest civilization , and of genuine Freemasonry . We are concerned only with his latter " find , " and shall invite attention to it .

Bro . Le Plongeon mtrodnces his work with a reference to the ancient mysteries of India , Egypt , and Greece—the Mahatmas or brothers of India , the Mysteries of Osiris in Egypt , and the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece , preparatory to saying that

Maya colonists transported their ancient religions rites and ceremonies not only to the banks of the Nile , but to those of the Euphrates , and the shores of the Indian Ocean , not less than 11 , 500 years ago . First he describes to us an artificial mound of peculiar

construction at Uxmal , Yucatan , originally ninety-five feet in height , on the upper plane of the frustrum of which was the " Sanctuary , or Holy of Holies , with the ground plan in the shape of a cross . " This he styles the " Temple of Mysteries . " We quote again : —

The middle chamber is now devoid of decorations of any sort . Its length , seven metres , is to-day the only vestige which remains to incli cate that in it , in former times , were practised rites and ceremonies pertaining to the third degree of initiation . * * * The exterior of the monument was once ornamented with elaborate and beautifnlly

executed sculptures , which have now in great part disappeared . Still those that adorn the exterior walls of the Sanctuary remain as specimens of the beautiful handiwork and of the great skill of the

artists ; whilst the exquisite architectural proportions of the whole edifice bespeak the mathematical and other scientific attainments of the architects who planned the building and superintended its erection .

The ornaments that cover these walls are remarkablo in more than one sense . Tbey are not only inscriptions in tbo Maya language , written in characters identical with and having the same meaning and value as those carved on the temples of Egypt , but among them are symbols known to have belonged to the ancient sacred mysterips

of the Egyptians , and to modern Freemasonry . In August 1880 , among the debris at the foot of the mound just described , I found traces of what onco had been the statue of a priest . The part of the statue from the waist to the knee particularly attracted my attention . Over his dress the personage wore an apron with an extended hand ,

as seen in the adjoining illustration—a symbol that will easily be recognised by members of the Masonio Fraternity . * * * This may be considered the oldest kuown edifice in the world consecrated to secret rites and ceremonies ; and its builders the founders of the sacred mysteries that were transported from Mayax to India , Chaldea , Egypt and Etruria , by colonists or missionaries .

Does not the American reader feel prouder of his continent since it is alleged to be not only the seat of the earliest civilization of the world , but also of tne earliest

Freemasonry r And if he is asked , Where Masonry originated ? he can reply ( in the language of Dr . Le Plongeon ) , —In Yucatan ; And when ? At least eleven thousand five hundred years ago !

The ceremonies of the Quiches of Guatemala , we are told , were kindred to those of the Mayas of Yucatan . We learn from the Popol-Vuh , sacred book of the Quiches , that the applicants for initiation to the mysteries were made to cross two rivers , one of mud , the other of blood , before they reached the four

roads that led to the place where the priests awaited them . * * * Guards were placed all round , to prevent the candidates from holding intercourse with the outer world . Then a lighted torch of pine wood and a cigar were given to each . These were not to be extinguished .

St'll they had to be returned whole at sunrise , when the officer iu charge of the house came to demand them . Woo to him who allowed bis torch and cigar to get consumed . Terrible chastisements , death evfn , awaited him .

* Sacred Mysterit-s among the Mayas and the Quiches , 11 , 500 ye = irs ago ; their velatiou to the Sacred Mysteries of Egypt , Greece , Chaldea , and Iudia . Freemasonry in times anterior to the Temple of Solomon . Illustrated . By Augustus Le Plongeon . New York : Robert Macoy , 1836 .

Masonry Eleven Thousand Years Ago In America.

The author then goes on to state that the general ground plan of the " Temple of the Mysteries , " was in the shape of an oblong square , that is of their letter M , pronounced Ma ; that among the mystic symbols was an equilateral triangle , though which passed a ribbon tied in a knot , and a cross ; and he concludes : —

That sacred mysteries were celebrated from times immemorial in the temple of Mayax , Xibalba , Nachan ( Palenque of to-day ) , Copan and other places of Central America , there can be no doubt . * * * I have presented , without commentaries , a few of the facts that twelvo years' researches among the ruins of the antique temples and

palaces of the Mayas , a knowledge of their language ( still spoken by their descendants , and in some places , as in tho vicinity of Poten , iu all it 3 pristine purity , the deciphering of certain mural inscriptions

the stndy of the sacred book of the Quiches , and the interpretatiou of passages in the Troano MS ., have disclosed to me concerning the history , civilization , cosmogorical conceptions , religious tenets and practices of the ancient inhabitants of Yucatan .

It is fortunate that this work has appeared prior to the sixth and concluding volume of Bro . Gould ' s History of Freemasonry , to be devoted in part to America , since he now has the opportunity to make , as it were , the cap-stone the corner-stone of his history . If Freemasonry originated

in America , and India , Egypt , Greece , Etruria , and Great Britain owe to our continent the origin of their Ancient Mysteries and Freemasonry , the sooner it is generall y known and admitted the better it will be for America . And then too it helps to explain another fact . Boston , being

more remote than Philadelphia from the original seat of Masonry in Yucatan , naturally did not receive its Masonic light at so early a date as the " City of Brotherly Love . " Indeed , is it not possible it may be made to appear that Philadelphia itself was not only the " Mother-city of

Freemasonry in America " ( as it unmistakably is ) , but also the mother-city of Freemasonry in the world , and that 11 , 500 years ago the Mayas and Quiches of Central America came up to the Lodges of the Delavvares , erected on tho

present site of Philadelphia , and there received their Masonic light ? If Bro . Gould would delay the issuing of his sixth volume a few years , it is barely possible he might be enabled to include this statement !

But what are the actual facts with regard to the antiquity of American civilization ? Beyond a doubt the tendency of modern research is in favour of some antiquity for this civilization . It antedated the Spanish conquest , but how long is a matter of conjecture . It seems to be

agreed , however , that the Maya civilization was the most ancient of all that which was native ( so-called ) . There were schools in the principal towns of Guatemala , and the chief one had as many as 70 masters and 5 , 000 pupils . But the Mayas , like the Mexicans , were as fond of amusement

as they were of study , and had a great predilection for entertaining each other at banquets , and to their shame be it said , the feast lasted until all were intoxicated , and then the wives led their helpless husbands home . All the evidences of early civilization in Central America , as found in

monumental remains , manuscripts , and the writings of mediaeval Spanish authors , have been diligently considered by such scholars as Stephens and Bancroft , and we accept their views , rather than the more fanciful ones of speculative writers , who are always sure to find what they look

for . We cannot agree that the civilization of the Mayas and Quiches has been proven to antedate that of Egypt , Persia , and India . According to Stephens , there have not been found any Cyclopean ruins ; there is not a single

excavation ; and the pyramids are entirely unlike those of Egypt , in that they are merely platforms of earth truncated at the top , prepared expressly for buildings to rest upon them , and having no interior chambers . Mr . Step hens

says : — I am inclined to think that there are not sufficient grounds for the belief in the great antiquity that has been ascribed to these ruins ; that they are not the works of people who have passed away , and whose history has become unknown j but , opposed as is my idea to

all previous speculations , that they were constructed by the races who occupied the country at the time of the invasion by the Spaniards , or if some not very distant progenitors . And this op inion is f nnded npon the appearance and condition of the remains themselves . all

The climate and rank luxuriance of soil are most destructive to perishable materials . For six months every year exposed to tho deluge of tropical rains , and with trees growing through the doorways of buildings and on the tops , it seems impossible that after a lapse ot two or three thousand years , a single edifice could now bo standing .

Dr . Le Plongeon himself says of the Mayas ( as we have already quoted ) , " their language is still spoken by their descendants , and in some places , as in the vicinity ot Peten , in all its pristine purity . " Their language ot