Queen Moo's Talisman: The Fall of the Maya Empire

								

where, in the tomb of Coh, they find his heart and Móo’s talisman, in
the urn in which she had deposited it many centuries before.

  II.

Among the ruins of his palace Aac’s spirit wanders desolate, pleading
for the blessing of forgetfulness in rebirth.

  III.

The talisman brings visions of the long ago, voices of the Past; Cay,
the Wise, still lives, still leads the way to paths of peace.
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QUEEN MÓO’S TALISMAN.


FALL OF THE MAYA EMPIRE.

  I.


Moved by the Will Supreme to be reborn,—
In high estate a soul sought earthly morn;
Life stirred within a beauteous Maya queen
Of noble deeds, of gracious word and mien.


Beneath the wing of Can, just potentate
O’er Maya-land, of old an empire great,
The Princess Móo knew all the joys of youth,
Led on from day to day by Love and Truth.
Earth’s fairest blossoms at her feet were flung;
About her slender form rare pearls were hung.
The zephyr soft was music to her ear;
The tempest wild awaked in her no fear.
Within her being Past and Future slept,
And into guileless mind no phantom crept.
Heart sang with Nature’s harmonies its best,
Like warbling bird within a downy nest.
But soon ’mong roseate tints more sombre thought
Unto youth’s bubbling spring dark ripples brought.


An aged man, divine love in his face,
Led Princess Móo within a sacred place
And there relating many a tale of old,
Of years to come would something too unfold.
Faint echos even now reverberate
What he then told about the awful fate
Of Mu, imperial mistress of the seas,
Renowned for power and wealth thro’ centuries.
“O’erwhelmed was she in one appalling night
When Homen, raging in his fearful might,
Threw lofty peaks that lesser mountains crushed,
And every life was into silence hushed.
The rended mountains sent aloft their fire
To meet the lightning’s dart and then expire.
From earth and sky incessant thunder broke;
The bursting clouds forced back ascending smoke;
Soon over all the seething billows swept:
Death’s lullaby the waters purled, and crept.
Then towering seas that gleamed as with snowcap,
Tossed ships on land, while into Ocean’s lap
The land convulsed, her haughty mansions heaved.
Waves onward dashed, as roaring flames they cleaved.
In contest fierce, for mastery thus strove
The elements, as luckless Mu they drove,
With Death to battle, down in yawning hell;
By all her gods forsaken, doomed she fell!”


“In blind despair, brother ’gainst brother fought;
For feeble minds to frenzy soon were brought.
Upon their knees men grovelled in the mud;
In vain from crashing wall, from flame and flood,
A shelter sought, demented they, with fear;