Page:Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx.djvu/83

 not pretend it is not accidental. I merely suggest a possibility, that, added to other facts, may later become a probability, if not a certainty. In the course of these pages we shall meet with so many concurrent facts, as having existed both in Mayach and Egypt, that it will become difficult to reconcile the mind to the belief that they are, altogether, the identical working of the human intelligence groping its way out of barbarism to civilization, as some have more than once hinted, as a last resort, in their inability to deny the striking concordance of these facts.

We are told that in the origin of language names were given to places, objects, tribes, individuals, or animals, in accordance with some peculiar inherent properties possessed by them, such as shape, voice, customs, etc., and to countries on account of their climate, geological formation, geographical configuration, or any other characteristic; that is, by onomatopœia. This assertion seems to find confirmation in the symbol of the Mayas; and the name Mayach forms no exception to the rule.

In fact, if we draw round the Yucatan peninsula a geometrical figure enclosing it, and composed of straight lines, by following the direction of its eastern, northern, and western coasts, it is easy to see that the drawing so made will unavoidably be the symbol.

That fact alone might not be deemed proof sufficient to affirm that the Mayas, in reality, did derive their sign for Ma from this cause, since to complete it, as transmitted by Landa, the character imix is wanting on each side.

It does not require a very great effort of the imagination to understand what this sign is meant for. A single