Page:Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx.djvu/37

 My readers will judge for themselves of the correctness of this assertion.

The reading of the Maya inscriptions and books, among other very interesting subjects, reveals the origin of many narratives that have come down to us, as traditions, in the sacred books of various nations, and which are regarded by many as inexplicable myths. For instance, we find in them the history of certain personages who, after their death, be- came the gods most universally revered by the Egyptians, Isis and Osiris, whose earthly history, related by Wilkinson and other writers who regard it as a myth, corresponds exactly to that of Queen Móo and her brother-husband Prince Coh, whose charred heart Avas found by me, preserved in a stone urn, in his mausoleum at Chicħen.

Osiris, we are told, was killed by his brother through jealousy, and because his murderer wished to seize the reins of the government. He made war against the widow, his own sister, whom he came to hate bitterly, after having been madly in love with her.

In these same books we learn the true meaning of the tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden; of the temptation of the woman by the serpent offering her a fruit. This offering of a fruit, as a declaration of love, which was a common occurrence in the every-day life of the Mayas, Egyptians, and Greeks, loses all the seeming incongruity it presents in the narrative of Genesis for lack of a word of explanation. But this shows how very simple facts have been, and still are, made use of by crafty men, such as the highpriest Hilkiah, to devise religious speculations and impose on the good faith of ignorant, credulous, and superstitious masses. It is on this story of the courting of Queen Móo by Prince Aac, the murderer of