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

								

authors.
As the general reader can hardly be expected to be familiar with the
peculiar customs and ideas of the natives of Central America, these are
sufficiently set forth in the Introduction, a careful perusal of which
will greatly contribute to an appreciation of the poem.
Attention is also invited to the separate page containing a list of the
Maya names and their meanings.
The second part of this narrative poem must be regarded not as a matter
of belief on the part of the author, but solely as having been
suggested by the belief of the natives who worked for Dr. Le Plongeon
in his explorations among the ruins of Chicħen.

  INTRODUCTION.

The word Maya, though not familiar to modern ears, is a most
interesting one to the antiquary. It appears to have originated with
the great nation whose people, as well as their language and country,
bore that name, even thousands of years back; their empire extended
over the land comprised between the isthmus of Tehuantepec and that of
Darien; known collectively to-day as Central America.
Dr. Le Plongeon has shown that in Yucatan and in Egypt the radical
MA, of the word Maya, meant earth and place. This word was used
by Hindoo sages to indicate matter, the earth, as it is found in
their cosmogonic diagram. All matter being regarded as illusion, the
word maya, in India, has that meaning. The mother of Buddha was Maya
Devi (Beautiful Illusion). Maya is matter, the feminine energy of
Brahma. But in the Indian epic, “Ramayana”, Maya is spoken of as a
great magician, an architect, a terrible warrior and famous navigator,
who took forcible possession of, and settled in, the countries at the
south of the Hindostan peninsula. Plainly, the poet personified as one
hero the Maya colonists who long ago made their way westward, across
the Pacific, and settled there.
On the shores of the Mediterranean we find nations whose ancestors seem
to have been intimate with the Mayas, for the names of their country,
of their cities, and of their divinities can be traced to the Maya
tongue. Furthermore, their traditions, customs, architecture, mode of
dress, weapons, and even their alphabetical letters are like those of
the Mayas. From records in stone and MSS. we learn something of the
philosophy of the Maya sages; and the same ideas are found among
nations living in Asia and Africa.
Nothing could be more significant than the universality of the word
Maya. In one country it is the name of a god or goddess; in another
that of a hero or heroine; elsewhere that of a cast, tribe or country.
This word is never used to indicate anything unimportant. In Greece the
goddess Maia was daughter of Atlas, mother of Hermes, the good mother
Kubéle, the Earth, Mother of the gods. We see a vestige of her worship
in the still popular festival of the Maya or May Queen, fair goddess of
spring, May, that very month when the Earth, matter, Maya, lives again,