Page:Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx.djvu/107

Rh being emblematic of the invincible power of royalty ;'" but he does not inform us why it was selected as such an emblem, nor does Plutarch, although he also teUs us that it was the symbol of royalty. ^ Pausanias^ affirms that the asp was held sacred throughout Egypt, and at Omphis particularly enjoyed the greatest honor. Phylarchus states the same thing.*

Still the Egyptian sages must have had very strong motives for thus honoring this serpent and causing it to play so con- spicuous a part in the mysteries of their religion. Was it per- chance in commemoration of the mother country of their ancestors, beyond the sea, toward the setting sun ? There the ancient rulers, after receiving the honors of apotheosis, were always represented in the monuments as serpents covered with feathers, the heads adorned with horns, and a flame instead of a crown; often, also, with simply a crown.

It is well to remember that in Egypt the cerastes, or horned snakes, were the only serpents, with the asp, that were held as sacred. Herodotus^ tells us that "when they die they are buried in the temple of Jupiter, to whom they are reputed sacred."

The Maya Empire comprised all the lands between the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and that of Darien, known to-day as Central America. The history of the sovereigns that had governed it, and of the principal events that had taken place in the nation, was written in well-bound books of papyrus or parchment, covered with highly ornamented wooden

' jElian, Nat. An., lib. vi., 33. " Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, S. 74. ' Pausanias, BcBot., c. 21. ' jElian, Nat. An., lib. xvii. 5. ' Herodotus, lib. ii., Ixxiv.