Theos-Talk Archives (November 2004 Message tt00026)

Nov 2 2004

 


Responding to a post in BN-Study, there is also HPB’s article:


This is Part 2


 

 

 

A LAND OF MYSTERY by HPB PART 2

 

 

 

Nearly all the mounds in North America are terraced and ascended by large
graded ways, sometimes square, often hexagonal, octagonal or truncated, but
in all respects similar to the teocallis of Mexico, and to the topes of
India. As the latter are attributed throughout this country to the work of
the five Pandus of the Lunar Race, so the cyclopean monuments and monoliths
on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in the republic of Bolivia, are ascribed to
giants, the five exiled brothers "from beyond the mounts." 

They worshipped the moon as their progenitor and lived before the time of
the "Sons and Virgins of the Sun." Here, the similarity of the Aryan with
the South American tradition is again but too obvious, and the Solar and
Lunar races--the Sûrya Vansa and the Chandra Vansa--re-appear in America.

This Lake Titicaca, which occupies the centre of one of the most remarkable
terrestrial basins on the whole globe, is "160 miles long and from 50 to 80
broad, and discharges through the valley of El Desagvadero, to the
south-east into another lake, called Lake Aullagas, which is probably kept
at a lower level by evaporation or filtration, since it has no known outlet.
The surface of the lake is 12,846 feet above the sea, and it is the most
elevated body of waters of similar size in the world." As the level of its
waters has very much decreased in the historical period, it is believed on
good grounds that they once surrounded the elevated spot on which are found
the remarkable ruins of Tiahuanaco.

The latter are without any doubt aboriginal monuments pertaining to an epoch
which preceded the Incal period, as far back as the Dravidian and other
aboriginal peoples preceded the Aryans in India. Although the traditions of
the Incas maintain that the great law-giver and teacher of the Peruvians,
Manco Capac--the Manu of South America diffused his knowledge and influence
from this centre, yet the statement is unsupported by facts. If the original
seat of the Aymara, or "Inca race" was there, as claimed by some, how is it
that neither the Incas, nor the Aymaras, who dwell on the shores of the Lake
to this day, nor yet the ancient Peruvians, had the slightest knowledge
concerning their history? 

Beyond a vague tradition which tells of "giants" having built these immense
structures in one night, we do not find the faintest clue. And, we have
every reason to doubt whether the Incas are of the Aymara race at all. The
Incas claim their descent from Manco Capac, the son of the Sun, and the
Aymaras claim this legislator as their instructor and the founder of the era
of their civilization. Yet, neither the Incas of the Spanish period could
prove the one, nor the Aymaras the other. The language of the latter is
quite distinct from the Inichua--the tongue of the Incas; and they were the
only race that refused to give up their language when conquered by the
descendants of the Sun, as Dr. Heath tells us.

The ruins afford every evidence of the highest antiquity. Some are built on
a pyramidal plan, as most of the American mounds are, and cover several
acres; while the monolithic doorways, pillars and stone-idols, so
elaborately carved, are "sculptured in a style wholly different from any
other remains of art yet found in America." 

D'Orbigny speaks of the ruins in the most enthusiastic manner. "These
monuments," he says, "consist of a mound raised nearly 100 feet, surrounded
with pillars--of temples from 600 to 1,200 feet in length, opening precisely
towards the east, and adorned with colossal angular columns--of porticoes of
a single stone, covered with reliefs of skilful execution, displaying
symbolical representations of the Sun, and the condor, his messenger--of
basaltic statues loaded with bas-reliefs, in which the design of the carved
head is half Egyptian--and lastly, of the interior of a palace formed of
enormous blocks of rock, completely hewn, whose dimensions are often 21 feet
in length, 12 in breadth, and 6 in thickness. In the temples and palaces,
the portals are not inclined, as among those of the Incas, but
perpendicular; and their vast dimensions, and the imposing masses, of which
they are composed, surpass in beauty and grandeur all that were afterwards
built by the sovereigns of Cuzco." Like the rest of his fellow-explorers, M.
D'Orbigny believes these ruins to have been the work of a race far anterior
to the Incas.

Two distinct styles of architecture are found in these relics of Lake
Titicaca. Those of the island of Coati, for instance, bear every feature in
common with the ruins of Tiahuanaco; so do the vast blocks of stone
elaborately sculptured, some of which, according to the report of the
surveyors, in 1846, measure: "3 feet in length by 18 feet in width, and 6
feet in thickness"; while on some of the is lands of the Lake Titicaca there
are monuments of great extent, "but of true Peruvian type, believed to be
the remains of temples destroyed by the Spaniards." 

The famous sanctuary, with the human figure in it, belongs to the former.
Its doorway 10 feet high, 13 feet broad, with an opening 6 feet 4 inches, by
3 feet 2 inches, is cut from a single stone. "Its east front has a cornice,
in the centre of which is a human figure of strange form, crowned with rays,
interspersed with serpents with crested heads. On each side of this figure
are three rows of square compartments, filled with human and other figures,
of apparently symbolic design. . . . " 

Were this temple in India, it would undoubtedly be attributed to Shiva; but
it is at the antipodes, where neither the foot of a Shaiva nor one of the
Naga tribe has ever penetrated to the knowledge of man, though the Mexican
Indians have their Nagal, or chief sorcerer and serpent worshipper. The
ruins standing on an eminence, which, from the watermarks around it, seem to
have been formerly an island in Lake Titicaca, and "the level of the Lake
now being 135 feet lower, and its shores, 12 miles distant, this fact, in
conjunction with others, warrants the belief that these remains antedate any
others known in America." 

Hence, all these relics are unanimously ascribed to the same "unknown and
mysterious people who preceded the Peruvians, as the Tulhuatecas or Toltecs
did the Aztecs. It seems to have been the seat of the highest and most
ancient civilization of South America and of a people who have left the most
gigantic monuments of their power and skill" . . . And these monuments are
all either Dracontias--temples sacred to the Snake, or temples dedicated to
the Sun.

Of this same character are the ruined pyramids of Teotihuacan and the
monoliths of Palenque and Copan. The former are some eight leagues from the
City of Mexico on the plain of Otumla, and considered among the most ancient
in the land. The two principal ones are dedicated to the Sun and Moon,
respectively. They are built of cut stone, square, with four stories and a
level area at the top. The larger, that of the Sun, is 221 feet high, 680
feet square at the base, and covers an area of 11 acres, nearly equal to
that of the great pyramid of Cheops. And yet, the pyramid of Cholula, higher
than that of Teotihuacan by ten feet according to Humboldt, and having 1,400
feet square at the base, covers an area of 45 acres!

It is interesting to hear what the earliest writers--the historians who saw
them during the first conquest--say even of some of the most modern of these
buildings, of the great temple of Mexico, among others. It consisted of an
immense square area "surrounded by a wall of stone and lime, eight feet
thick, with battlements, ornamented with many stone figures in the form of
serpents," says one. Cortez shows that 500 houses might be easily placed
within its enclosure. It was paved with polished stones, so smooth, that
"the horses of the Spaniards could not move over them without slipping,"
writes Bernal Diaz. In connection with this, we must remember that it was
not the Spaniards who conquered the Mexicans, but their horses. As there
never was a horse seen before by this people in America, until the Europeans
landed it in the coast, the natives, though excessively brave, "were so
awe-struck at the sight of horses and the roar of the artillery," that they
took the Spaniards to be of divine origin and sent them human beings as
sacrifices. This superstitious panic is sufficient to account for the fact
that a handful of men could so easily conquer incalculable thousands of
warriors.

According to Gomera, the four walls of the enclosure of the temple
correspond with the cardinal points. In the centre of this gigantic area
arose the great temple, an immense pyramidal structure of eight stages,
faced with stone, 300 feet square at the base and 120 feet in height,
truncated, with a level summit, upon which were situated two towers, the
shrines of the divinities to whom it was consecrated--Tezcatlipoca and
Huitzlipochtli. 

It was here that the sacrifices were performed, and the eternal fire
maintained. Clavigero tells us, that besides this great pyramid, there were
forty other similar structures consecrated to various divinities. The one
called Tezcacalli, "the House of the Shining Mirrors, sacred to
Tezcatlipoca, the God of Light, the Soul of the World, the Vivifier, the
Spiritual Sun." The dwellings of priests, who, according to Zarate, amounted
to 8,000, were near by, as well as the seminaries and the schools. Ponds and
fountains, groves and gardens, in which flowers and sweet smelling herbs
were cultivated for use in certain sacred rites and the decoration of
altars, were in abundance; and, so large was the inner yard, that "8,000 or
10,000 persons had sufficient room to dance in it upon their solemn
festivities"--says Solis. Torquemada estimates the number of such temples in
the Mexican empire at 40,000 but Clavigero, speaking of the majestic
Teocalli (literally, houses of God) of. Mexico, estimates the number higher.

So wonderful are the features of resemblance between the ancient shrines of
the Old and the New World that Humboldt remains unequal to express his
surprise. "What striking analogies exist between the monuments of the old
continents and those of the Toltecs who . . . built these colossal
structures, truncated pyramids, divided by layers, like the temple of Belus
at Babylon! Where did they take the model of these edifices?"--he exclaims.

The eminent naturalist might have also enquired where the Mexicans got all
their Christian virtues from, being but poor pagans. The code of the Aztecs,
says Prescott, "evinces a profound respect for the great principles of
morality, and as clear a perception of these principles as is to be found in
the most cultivated nations." Some of these are very curious inasmuch as
they show a similarity to some of the Gospel ethics. "He who looks too
curiously on a woman, commits adultery with his eyes," says one of them.
"Keep peace with all; bear injuries with humility; God, who sees, will
avenge you," declares another. 

Recognizing but one Supreme Power in Nature, they addressed it as the deity
"by whom we live, Omnipresent, that knoweth all thoughts and giveth all
gifts, without whom man is as nothing; invisible, incorporeal, one of
perfect perfection and purity, under whose wings we find repose and a sure
defence." And, in naming their children, says Lord Kingsborough, "they used
a ceremony strongly resembling the Christian rite of baptism, the lips and
bosom of the infant being sprinkled with water, and the Lord implored to
wash away the sin that was given to it before the foundation of the world,
so that the child might be born anew." 

"Their laws were perfect; justice, contentment and peace reigned in the
kingdom of these benighted heathens," when the brigands and the Jesuits of
Cortez landed at Tabasco. A century of murders, robbery, and forced
conversion, were sufficient to transform this quiet, inoffensive and wise
people into what they are now. They have fully benefited by dogmatic
Christianity. And he, who ever went to Mexico, knows what that means. The
country is full of blood-thirsty Christian fanatics, thieves, rogues,
drunkards, debauchees, murderers, and the greatest liars the world has ever
produced! Peace and glory to your ashes, O Cortez and Torquemada! In this
case at least, will you never be permitted to boast of the enlightenment
your Christianity has poured out on the poor, and once virtuous heathens!

III

The ruins of Central America are no less imposing. Massively built, with
walls of a great thickness, they are usually marked by broad stairways,
leading to the principal entrance. When composed of several stories, each
successive story is usually smaller than that below it, giving the structure
the appearance of a pyramid of several stages. The front walls, either made
of stone or stuccoed, are covered with elaborately carved, symbolic figures;
and the interior divided into corridors and dark chambers, with arched
ceilings, the roofs supported by overlapping courses of stones,
"constituting a pointed arch, corresponding in type with the earliest
monuments of the old world." 

Within several chambers at Palenque, tablets, covered with sculptures and
hieroglyphics of fine design and artistic execution, were discovered by
Stephens. In Honduras, at Copan, a whole city--temples, houses and grand
monoliths intricately carved--was unearthed in an old forest by Catherwood
and Stephens. The sculpture and general style of Copan are unique, and no
such style or even anything approaching it has been found anywhere else,
except at Quirigua, and in the islands of Lake Nicaragua. No one can
decipher the weird hieroglyphical inscriptions on the altars and monoliths.
With the exception of a few works of uncut stone, "to Copan, we may safely
assign an antiquity higher than to any of the other monuments of Central
America with which we are acquainted," says the New American Cyclopædia. At
the period of the Spanish conquest, Copan was already a forgotten ruin,
concerning which existed only the vaguest traditions.

No less extraordinary are the remains of the different epochs in Peru. The
ruins of the temple of the Sun at Cuzco are yet imposing, notwithstanding
that the deprecating hand of the Vandal Spaniard passed heavily over it. If
we may believe the narratives of the conquerors themselves, they found it,
on their arrival, a kind of a fairy-tale castle. With its enormous circular
stone wall completely encompassing the principal temple, chapels and
buildings, it is situated in the very heart of the city, and even its
remains justly provoke the admiration of the traveller. 

"Aqueducts opened within the sacred enclosure; and within it were gardens,
and walks among shrubs and flowers of gold and silver, made in imitation of
the productions of nature. It was attended by 4,000 priests." "The ground,"
says La Vega, "for 200 paces around the temple, was considered holy, and no
one was allowed to pass within this boundary but with naked feet." 

Besides this great temple, there were 300 other inferior temples at Cuzco.
Next to the latter in beauty, was the celebrated temple of Pachacamac. Still
another great temple of the Sun is mentioned by Humboldt; and, "at the base
of the hill of Cannar was formerly a famous shrine of the Sun, consisting of
the universal symbol of that luminary, formed by nature upon the face of a
great rock." 

Roman tells us "that the temples of Peru were built upon high grounds or the
top of the hills, and were surrounded by three and four circular embankments
of earth, one within the other." Other remains seen by myself especially
mounds--are surrounded by two, three, and four circles of stones. Near the
town of Cayambe, on the very spot which Ulloa saw and described an ancient
Peruvian temple "perfectly circular in form, and open at the top," there are
several such cromlechs. 

Quoting from an article in the Madras Times of 1876, Mr. J. H. Rivett-Carnac
gives, in his Archaeological Notes, the following information upon some
curious mounds in the neighborhood of Bangalore:--7
<http://www.blavatsky.net/blavatsky/arts/LandOfMystery.htm#FNT7#FNT7> "Near
the village there are at least one hundred cromlechs plainly to be seen.
These cromlechs are surrounded by circles of stones, some of them with
concentric circles three and four deep. One very remarkable in appearance
has four circles of large stones around it, and is called by the natives
'Pandavara Gudi' or the temples of the Pandas. . . . This is supposed to be
the first instance, where the natives popularly imagine a structure of this
kind to have been the temple of a by-gone, if not of a mythical, race. Many
of these structures have a triple circle, some a double, and a few single
circles of stone round them." 

In the 35th degree of latitude, the Arizona Indians in North America have
their rude altars to this day, surrounded by precisely such circles, and
their sacred spring, discovered by Major Alfred R. Calhoun, F.G.S., of the
United States Army Survey Commission, is surrounded with the same symbolical
wall of stones, as is found in Stonehenge and elsewhere. 

By far the most interesting and full account we have read for a long time
upon the Peruvian antiquities is that from the pen of Mr. Heath of Kansas,
already mentioned. Condensing the general picture of these remains into the
limited space of a few pages in a periodical, he yet manages to present a
masterly and vivid picture of the wealth of these remains. More than one
speculator has grown rich in a few days through his desecrations of the
"huacas." The remains of countless generations of unknown races, who had
slept there undisturbed--who knows for how many ages--are now left by the
sacrilegious treasure-hunter to crumble into dust under the tropical sun.
Mr. Heath's conclusions, more startling, perchance, than his discoveries,
are worthy of being recorded. We will repeat in brief his descriptions:--

"In the Jeguatepegue valley in Peru in 70° 24' S. Latitude, four miles north
of the port of Pacasmayo is the Jeguatepegue river. Near it, beside the
southern shore, is an elevated platform 'one-fourth of a mile square and
forty feet high, all of adobes or sun-burnt bricks. A wall of fifty feet in
width connects it with another'; 150 feet high, 200 feet across the top, and
500 at the base, nearly square. This latter was built in sections of rooms,
ten feet square at the base, six feet at the top and about eight feet high. 

All of this same class of mounds--temples to worship the sun, or fortresses,
as they may be--have on the northerly side an incline for an entrance.
Treasure-seekers have cut into this one about half-way, and it is said
150,000 dollars' worth of gold and silver ornaments were found." Here many
thousands of men were buried and beside the skeletons were found in
abundance ornaments of gold, silver, copper, coral beads, &c. "On the north
side of the river, are the extensive ruins of a walled city, two miles wide
by six long. . . . Follow the river to the mountains. 

All along you pass ruin after ruin and huaca after huaca" (burial places).
At Tolon there is another ruined city. Five miles further, up the river,
"there is an isolated boulder of granite, four and six feet in its
diameters, covered with hieroglyphics; fourteen miles further, a point of
mountain at the junction of two ravines is covered to a height of more than
fifty feet with the same class of hieroglyphics--birds, fishes, snakes,
cats, monkeys, men, sun, moon, and many odd and now unintelligible forms. 

The rock, on which these are cut, is a silicated sandstone, and many of the
lines are an eighth of an inch deep. In one large stone there are three
holes, twenty to thirty inches deep, six inches in diameter at the orifice
and two at the apex. . . . At Anchi, on the Rimac river, upon the face of a
perpendicular wall 200 feet above the river-bed, there are two
hieroglyphics, representing an imperfect B and a perfect D. In a crevice
below them, near the river, were found buried 25,000 dollars' worth of gold
and silver; when the Incas learned of the murder of their chief, what did
they do with the gold they were bringing for his ransom? Rumour says they
buried it. . . . May not these markings at Yonan tell something, since they
are on the road and near to the Incal city?"

The above was published in November, 1878, when in October, 1877, in my work
"Isis Unveiled" (Vol. I, p. 595), I gave a legend, which, for circumstances
too long to explain, I hold to be perfectly trustworthy, relating to these
same buried treasures for the Inca's ransom, a journal more satirical than
polite classed it with the tales of Baron Munchausen. The secret was
revealed to me by a Peruvian. 

At Arica, going from Lima, there stands an enormous rock, which tradition
points to as the tomb of the Incas. As the last rays of the setting sun
strike the face of the rock, one can see curious hieroglyphics inscribed
upon it. These characters form one of the land-marks that show how to get at
the immense treasures buried in subterranean corridors. 

The details are given in "Isis," and I will not repeat them. Strong
corroborative evidence is now found in more than one recent scientific work;
and the statement may be less pooh-poohed now than it was then. Some miles
beyond Yonan, on a ridge of a mountain 700 feet above the river, are the
walls of another city. Six and twelve miles further are extensive walls and
terraces; seventy-eight miles from the coast, "you zigzag up the mountain
side 7,000 feet then descend 2,000" to arrive at Coxamolca, the city where,
unto this day, stands the house in which Atahualpa, the unfortunate Inca,
was held prisoner by the treacherous Pizzaro. It is the house which the Inca
"promised to fill with gold as high as he could reach, in exchange for his
liberty" in 1532; he did fill it with 17,500,000 dollars' worth of gold, and
so kept his promise. 

But Pizzaro, the ancient swineherd of Spain and the worthy acolyte of the
priest Hernando de Lugues, murdered him, notwithstanding his pledge of
honor. 

Three miles from this town, "there is a wall of unknown make. Cemented, the
cement is harder than stone itself. . . . At Chepen, there is a mountain
with a wall twenty feet high, the summit being almost entirely artificial.
Fifty miles south of Pacaomayo, between the seaport of Huanchaco and
Truxillo, are the ruins of Chan-Chan, the capital city of the Chimoa
kingdom. . . . The road from the port to the city crosses these ruins,
entering by a causeway about four feet from the ground, and leading from one
great mass of ruins to another; beneath this is a tunnel." Be they forts,
castles, palaces or burial mounds called "huacas," all bear the name
"huaca." Hours of wandering on horseback among these ruins give only a
confused idea of them, nor can any explorers there point out what were
palaces and what were not. . . . The highest enclosures must have cost an
immense amount of labour.

To give an idea of the wealth found in the country by the Spaniards, we copy
the following, taken from the records of the municipality in the city of
Truxillo by Mr. Heath. It is a copy of the accounts that are found in the
book of Fifths of the Treasury in the years 1577 and 1578, of the treasures
found in the "Huaca of Toledo" by one man alone.

First.--In Truxillo. Peru, on the 22nd of July 1577, Don Garcia Gutierrez de
Toledo presented himself at the royal treasury, to give into the royal chest
a-fifth. He brought a bar of gold 19 carats ley and weighing 2,400 Spanish
dollars, of which the fifth being 708 dollars, together with 11/2 per cent
to the chief assayer, were deposited in the royal box.

Secondly.--On the 12th of December, he presented himself with five bars of
gold, 15 and 19 carats ley, weighing 8,918 dollars.

Thirdly.--On the 7th of January 1578, he came with his fifth of large bars
and plates of gold, one hundred and fifteen in number, 15 to 20 carats ley,
weighing 153,280 dollars.

Fourthly.--On the 8th of March, he brought sixteen bars of gold, 14 to 21
carats ley, weighing 21,118 dollars.

Fifthly.--On the fifth of April, he brought different ornaments of gold,
being little belts of gold and patterns of corn-heads and other things, of
14 carats ley, weighing 6,272 dollars.

Sixthly.--On the 20th of April, he brought three small bars of gold, 20
carats ley, weighing 4,170 dollars.

Seventhly.--On the 12th of July, he came with forty-seven bars, 14 to 21
carats, weighing 777,312 dollars.

Eighthly.--On the same day he came back with another portion of gold and
ornaments of corn-heads and pieces of effigies of animals, weighing 4,704
dollars.

"The sum of these eight bringings amounted to 278,174 gold dollars or
Spanish ounces. Multiplied by sixteen gives 4,450,784 silver dollars.
Deducting the royal fifth--985,953.75 dollars--left 3,464, 830.25 dollars as
Toledo's portion! Even after this great haul, effigies of different animals
of gold were found from time to time. Mantles, also adorned with square
pieces of gold, as well as robes made with feathers of divers colours were
dug up. 

There is a tradition that in the huaca of Toledo there were two treasures,
known as the great and little fish. The smaller only has been found. Between
Huacho and Supe, the latter being 120 miles north of Callao, near a point
called Atahuangri, there are two enormous mounds, resembling the Campana and
San Miguel, of the Huatic Valley, soon to be described. 

About five miles from Patavilca tsouth, and near Supe) is a place called
'Paramonga' or the fortress The ruins of a fortress of great extent are here
visible, the walls are of tempered clay, about six feet thick. The principal
building stood on an eminence, but the walls were continued to the foot of
it, like regular circumvallations; the ascent winding round the hill like a
labyrinth, having many angles which probably served as outworks to defend
the place. In this neighbourhood, much treasure has been excavated, all of
which must have been concealed by the pre-historic Indian, as we have no
evidence of the Incas ever having occupied this part of Peru after they had
subdued it."

 

[ Part 3 will complete this posting ]

 

 

Dallas

 



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