Page:Queen Moo's talisman; the fall of the Maya empire (IA queenmoostalisma00leplrich).djvu/19

 unquestionably a vestige of sun worship; the ancients, versed in astronomy, thus celebrated the sun's entrance into Taurus, and the vernal equinox. The Maypole, as known in Europe, has been satisfactorily shown to be the remains of an ancient institution of Persia, India, and Egypt, where Maya civilization was carried in past ages. The May Queen is a personification of the goddess Maya, the feminine forces of nature; possibly too of that Maya country whence it came. In Yucatan there is no queen connected with the dance; there it is and was sun worship pure and simple.

In Yucatan, as in the British Isles and elsewhere, the pole is planted before the residences of leading citizens, and the dance is performed for a recompense. In Ireland the dancers wore over their other dress white shirts, a detail which becomes interesting in view of the fact that the Maya people always dress exclusively in white.

In Dr. Le Plongeon's prolonged studies among the remarkable Ruins on the Yucatan peninsula, after finding, by much patient endeavor, a clue to the hieroglyphic signs covering the walls of ancient palaces and temples, he clearly saw that the word CAN was inscribed in a variety of ways on all the buildings, and as he advanced in his studies, he learned that this had been the title of several monarchs who constituted a powerful dynasty. It is a remarkably interesting fact that the same title, spelled Khan, is to-day given to rulers in many of the Asiatic nations; furthermore, the principal emblem on the banners of those Khans is the serpent or dragon.

Continued research, including excavations and a close study of every object found, together with several tableaux of mural paintings, convinced Dr. Le Plongeon that he had succeeded in