Tyrian God-Saturn,-is, as we have stated, upon the stuccoed walls of Palenque,-and, we believe, was placed there as a record of a Religious custom, practised anterior to the walls being stuccoed,-for, another piece of Sculpture represents the perfect overthrow of this worship, by a more sublime Religion, which will be shewn in the third Volume. This discovery by us, suggested the apparent truth, that the Temple of Palenque was originally of stone, and dedicated to the Sun (the elliptical stone tablet will prove that), and that its second æra was the stuccoing of the walls, this fact we think can be established, to have taken place about 350 years after the Temple was first erected. As this subject involves that portion of our History, which embraces the introduction of Christianity into the Western Hemisphere, all argument to prove the second æra in the Temple of Palenque, is reserved for that Volume, devoted to the interesting and important investigation.

The pictorial description given in the engraving, furnished by Baron Humboldt, of the Mexican Calendar found in the plaza of Mexico (buried in the time of Cortez) has a direct bearing upon the Tyro-Mexican Saturn, as represented at Palenque. The centre of the sculptured Calendar-circle recorded by the great Traveller,—is a horrid mask, or face,-nearly a likeness of that at Palenque; and one remarkable incident of identity is, that each face has the tongue hanging out, and by the muscular action,-in the same blooddevouring manner. Now these Masks of Saturn (as we

have named them) were discovered many hundred miles apart, which would seem to indicate that the worship, or adoration of that heathen deity was a general one, and practised by all the Mexican Aborigines. The several Idol-obelisks at Copan, having the Altars in front, were the personation of deities of less denomination than Saturn, but to whom, without doubt, were sacrificed devoted victims and captives;the same also upon the pyramidal Altars of Cholula and Quirigua. The Tyrians of Phoenicia had many minor deities claiming human sacrifice.

Another analogy will now be produced equally as powerful-if not more so, than that having reference to the Tyrian Moloch. The Phoenicians had in their several capitals a Temple erected to a tutelary, or National God,—and that became the chief object of worship. The Greeks copied this custom,—but, in the Cecropian decision in the contest between Neptune and Pallas, the Goddess was preferred, and thus the " rejected" on Mount Ida became the Guardian of the Acropolis. The Daughter of Jupiter, in her character of Minerva, was not only worshipped by Athens, but by all Attica, and under the name of Intellect, she is now worshipped by every Nation! The Tyrians, from their remote ancestors, the Canaanites, selected Apollo, as their favourite and protective God,—although Jupiter was the Chief of Gods with all the Heathens, and was worshipped under the name of Baal, or Belus, by the Babylonians and Assyrians,-Ammon by the Egypt

VOL. I.

L

ians,-Jupiter by the Phoenicians and Greeks, and as Jove by the Romans.

The Sun,-(i. e. Apollo,)—as the Eye of Heaven,— was worshipped by the Canaanites, Sidonians, Tyrians, and Carthaginians as their protective God,-it never left the great Phoenician family from the time of Canaan the "cursed,"-the grandson of Noah,-to the destruction of Carthage by the Romans,-a period of near two thousand years.

The chief Games,-or public festivals, of the Tyrians were the Heraclian,-i. e. those dedicated to HerculesApollo; the name was compounded by the Tyrians, in order to personify the strength and power of their God of Fire.

Apollo in the mythology of the ancients had many attributes, but the chief was that of being regarded as the Symbol of the Sun, and as such, was worshipped by the Tyrians, and had been from remote antiquity, and even down to so late a period as the third century of our own æra: for in 218, A. D., a Priest of the Sun, officiating at Emessa, in Phoenicia, though a youth, was elevated to the Imperial dignity at Rome, in the person of Elagabalus,-and who, upon his arrival the following year in his Italian Capital, endeavoured to establish the absolute Worship of the Sun as practised in Phoenicia. In this he succeeded, but in the fourth year of his reign he was assassinated, when the Romans returned to the adoration of their Jupiter.

The Sun was, also, the chief worship at Palmyra,

and upon the conquest and captivity of the heroic Zenobia by the Emperor Aurelian, in 272 A. D.,-the conqueror introduced the worship of Apollo at Rome:but, not as Elagabalus to the exclusion of Jupiter as the chief Deity.

The celebrated Statue of the Apollo Belvidere, represents the God in the attitude of having just discharged an arrow from his " unerring bow," the attiude, look, and general action, embrace that moment of time during the flight of the feathered shaft,-all this is merely symbolical of the Sun,-for the Statue illustrates the triumph over the Deucalion Deluge :-as thus. After that Deluge the stagnated waters created an enormous monster from the muddy slime, called Python; (i. e. Pestilence)-Apollo (i. e. the Sun) killed the monster with his arrows, (i. e. Sun-beams)and the Statue of the Sun-God represents, in his triumphant look and lip, the ease and certainty of his unerring aim and victory!

Apollo, therefore, is the Sun, and as such was regarded and adored by the Tyrians; and such was their devotion to the golden Statue of their God, that at the last siege of their city (according to Plutarch), they fastened it with chains of massive gold, and even nailed the feet of the Statue, and thus doubly secured it to the Chief Altar in the Temple of Hercules-Apollo,-who being the chief object of worship by the Tyrians, (believing that it was the flame of life,)-it cannot be a matter of surprise, that such an attempt to secure their

"source of existence," should have been made against their ruthless invader.

The reader need scarcely be reminded that the chief symbol of worship among the Mexican Aborigines was Apollo, as viewed by the Tyrians. There is not a schoolboy but is familiar with the fact (from the pen of Kotzebue and Sheridan,) that the chief deity of their Temple, the Sun,-was "the God of their Idolatry!"

"The faith (i. e. worship of the Sun) we follow, teaches us to live in bonds of charity with all mankind, and die with hope of bliss beyond the grave!" [Pizarro, Act 2. Sc. " Temple of the Sun."] This analogy in the chief worship of the Tyrians and Mexicans, in illustrating their identity, is as powerful as a sculptured Crescent upon a gravestone,-to impress the passer-by with the belief, that a Mahommedan sleeps beneath!

There is no record of the Phoenician or Tyrian Banner,—but it may have descended to the Peruvians, -their device being an Eagle gazing upon a brilliant Sun!--it would not be an inappropriate Standard for the Tyrians, considering their watchfulness of their favourite God.

The Apollo-worship of the Tyrian and Mexican (together with that of Saturn) we might enlarge upon, did we not think, that the reader has already formed his own affirmative conclusion of their identity.

As Apollo represented the Sun,-so did Astartē the Moon, and she was the Chief Goddess of the