Alice D. Le Plongeon

“ The melody and strange accompaniment are impressive and stirring, the rattles being particularly effective, now imitating the scattering of grain, then by a brisk motion of every arm sending forth a sound like a sudden rainfall on parched leaves, or a thunder clap in the distance, uniting with a shout raised by the dancers at the conclusion of each chorus. The fans, kept in motion, are emblematic of refreshing breezes.
The flag on the pole is undoubtedly a modern addition, simply to indicate what the dance originally was; of old, the pole itself represented the central orb ”

“ Thenceforth he would by every means efface
The jealous hatred rankling in Aac’s mind;
But he alas! with passion grew more blind;
For now that Móo was Queen, and consort Coh,
Her love he ne’er could win, nor him o’erthrow. ”

“ This Maypole dance, called in Yucatan “Ribbon Dance” is unquestionably a vestige of sun worship; the ancients, versed in astronomy, thus celebrated the sun’s entrance into Taurus, and the vernal equinox. The Maypole, as known in Europe, has been satisfactorily shown to be the remains of an ancient institution of Persia, India, and Egypt, where Maya civilization was carried in past ages. The May Queen is a personification of the goddess Maya, the feminine forces of nature; possibly too of that Maya country whence it came. In Yucatan there is no queen connected with the dance ”

“ At the death of King Can, his daughter Móo became Queen of Chicħen. As among the Egyptians, and the Incas in Peru, so among the Mayas, royal brothers and sisters were obliged to marry each other; in Siam and some other places the same custom exists to-day. One of Móo’s brothers had therefore to be Prince consort. Aac aspired to her hand, but Coh, a valiant leader in battle, and favorite with the people, was her own choice. This gave rise to lamentable events which caused the ruin of the dynasty, Aac refusing to be reconciled. ”

“ Then the young men paid homage to the statue by bending one knee, in a manner peculiar to those people.
Traditions of their ancestors are not altogether lost among the natives, as some travelers assert. Many still perform rites and ceremonies in the depths of forests or in unexplored caverns, in the darkness of the night, but keep their secrets to themselves, remembering the tortures inflicted on their fathers by the Spanish priests to oblige them to forego the religious observances that had been dear to those of their race for countless generations. ”

“ The songs introduced have been arranged to the metre of the two or three ancient melodies yet occasionally heard among the natives of Yucatan. The one to the rain gods is a versification (set to the tune even now used in a sun-dance) of an old Maya prayer translated from that language by Dr. Le Plongeon and published in his work “Queen Móo and the Egyptian Sphinx.” The melody to which the Love Song is set is not Maya. In connection with the lines touching upon love and pain it may be remarked that in the Maya language there is but one word to express both. ”

“ In the great square of the old city of Chicħen, Dr. Le Plongeon discovered, in the thick forest, two very ancient tombs with some of their decorative sculptures yet in place; those on one, enabled him to see that the tomb had been erected to the memory of Coh by his widow, Queen Móo. In it he found a statue of the Prince consort; also a large white stone urn, containing what proved, by chemical analysis, to have been human flesh, charred and preserved in red oxide of mercury. ”

“ The Master of the dance wears a stiff circular cap, surrounded by upright peacock feathers that sway with every movement, towering above all the dancers, and about his shoulders is a string of big sea-shells. ”

“ When the crops ripen, the finest ears are carried to the grimy divinity by men, women, and children, who within the cavern dance and pray all day long, some of their quaint instruments serving as accompaniment to the Latin litanies which they chant, without having even the vaguest idea of their meaning. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A refuge safe; nor into those might creep;
For when they drew anear, with thunderous sound
The cavern mouths closed up as heaved the ground.
In cities rich and great the house-tops swarmed
With frantic men, by fear to brutes transformed. ”

“ VI. Aac, frustrated even in his hour of triumph, becomes a tyrant, oppresses those under his sway, turns a deaf ear to better promptings, and at last is killed in a contest with some of his own subjects, who would restrain him. The famous CAN dynasty is thus brought to its close.
VII. The Queen and her rescuers find tranquillity in the land of the Nile, where, long before, Maya colonists had made their homes. Here, Móo is received with open arms, and reigns again to the hour of her death. ”

“ The Maya nation mourns—be thine the task
To see the culprit found—’tis all we ask.”
Aac’s features changed, with ardor he exclaimed—
“Not so! no blameless man shall be defamed
For what my passion wrought—all mine the guilt!
No clemency beg I—do as thou wilt.”
There spake Aac’s better self; just thought inbred
Outbreathed. With pity touched, Móo’s loathing fled.
Nor could a child of Can know aught of fear;
Aac boldly stood, the Pontiff’s word to hear.
“Thou shalt live on; hast made thyself accurst!
Not thus will we—let fools for vengeance thirst.
From Chicħen, go! thy face we would not see. ”

“ The natives who aided in bringing Coh’s statue to light, out of the mausoleum where it had remained concealed for thousands of years, invariably spoke of it as the “Enchanted Prince”, and frequently assured its discoverer that he had succeeded in finding it because he himself had dwelt there in past ages, and was one of the great men whose effigies were seen on all sides.
When the larger portion of the charred viscera found in the urn was burned, to reduce it to ashes, the natives standing by exclaimed—“A majestic shade ascends amid the smoke! ”

“ Aac, the unsuccessful suitor, is filled with jealous wrath.
The sovereign Can, and his brother the High Priest Cay, both pass away. The Can’s eldest son, also named Cay, becomes High Priest; Móo is Queen of Chicħen, and her consort the supreme military chief.
III. The Prince consort is treacherously slain by his brother Aac, who admits his guilt, and is banished from the royal city, his elder brother warning him that he, Aac, will cause the downfall of the Can dynasty.
IV. Multitudes assemble to bewail the death of Coh and witness the funeral rites. ”

“ In Yucatan, as in the British Isles and elsewhere, the pole is planted before the residences of leading citizens, and the dance is performed for a recompense. In Ireland the dancers wore over their other dress white shirts, a detail which becomes interesting in view of the fact that the Maya people always dress exclusively in white. ”

“ His ashes are laid to rest and, with his charred heart, deposited in a stone urn, the widowed Queen places her talisman, hoping to thus link her destiny with that of Coh. She builds a monument over his mortal remains and a statue made to his likeness, and erects a memorial hall, upon whose exterior walls she inscribes an invocation to the manes of her consort.
V. Notwithstanding his crime, Aac ventures to renew his entreaties. Failing in his desire, he brings about a war that causes the ruin of the country and people. Finally the Queen is captured and imprisoned by Aac ”

“ In this poem are represented as nearly as possible, the religious ideas of the Mayas, their belief in KU, the Supreme Intelligence; in the immortality of the soul, and in successive lives on earth before returning to the great Source whence all emanate; also their rites and ceremonies as gathered from traditions of the natives of Yucatan, the fresco paintings found at Chicħen, and the books of ancient Maya authors. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One man carries a white flag on which is painted an image of the sun, and a man and woman on their knees worshiping it. Three men, apart from the dancers, play a clarionet, a sacatan, and a big turtle-shell beaten with deer-horns. The Master marks time with a rattle, and in his other hand has a three-thonged whip like the flagellum of Osiris in Egypt ”

“ The Maypole dance is yet performed among the natives of Yucatan, the land where it probably originated. The dancers are invariably thirteen in number, which may be another reminiscence of the land submerged beneath the waves of the Atlantic on the thirteenth day of the Maya month of Zac. ”

“ Together they journey to the land of the Mayas 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.
QUEEN MÓO’S TALISMAN.
Fall of the Maya Empire. ”

“ The sun-dance mentioned in the Preface, is occasionally performed by Indians in Yucatan at the time of the vernal equinox. Twenty men take part—corresponding to the number of days in the ancient Maya month—but ten dress as women, whence it may be inferred that in olden times the dancers were of both sexes. ”

“ The antiquity of the carving cannot be doubted, similar ones existing on pillars at the entrance of a very ancient castle at Chicħen. The figure in the cavern is on its knees, its hands are raised to a level with its head, palms upturned. On its back is a bag containing what the natives say is a cake made of corn and beans. The statue is now black, owing to the incense and candles with which its devotees frequently smoke it. ”

“ In connection with the song to the rain-gods it may be said that although the natives of Yucatan are to-day Catholic in name, they really prefer to render homage to some statue of their forefathers, and cling tenaciously to a few of their old divinities. Among these may be mentioned Balam (tiger) , guardian of the crops, likewise appealed to as a rain-god. In a subterranean cavern a few miles from Chicħen, there is an old image of a man with long beard ”

“ SEQUEL. I. After many centuries have passed away, in a land far distant from that of the Mayas, Death snatches a baby girl from a loving brother. He stays upon earth; his lost sister again takes mortal form in another family; they meet and are united ”

“ Finally, the expression “Will Supreme” in the opening line of the poem is used in the sense of the Maya word UOL (or will) as applied by the Mayas of ancient times to the First Great Cause. This subject has been fully treated elsewhere by Dr. Le Plongeon.
1. These Indians were in May, 1901, subjugated by Mexican troops, under General Bravo, after a prolonged struggle, and their capital of Chan Santa Cruz was taken.
ARGUMENT. I. A soul returns to earth to live again in mortal form as daughter of a potentate who rules over the Maya Empire. ”

“ It is the form of the enchanted Prince, that seems to fade into nothingness.” So impressed were the men by what their imagination had evoked, that all ran from the spot in a state of agitation.
On the day when the statue, weighing three thousand pounds, was taken out of the monument, a party of hostile Indians suddenly emerged from the forest. ”

“ Now the dance commences, round and round the pole they go with various steps and motions, not graceful, but energetic and full of meaning. The dance is intended to represent, among other things, the course and movement of our planet around the sun. The chief and the dancers sing alternately:
“Take care how you step!” ”

“ They wear their usual spotless white garments, and sandals. Those clad as women are ornamented with large bead necklaces, principally red, in imitation of old Maya coin, and all the dancers have ear-rings. ”