Page:Atlantis - The Antediluvian World (1882).djvu/409

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THE PERUVIAN COLONY.
391

shall show, exists between the speech of the South American Pacific coast on the one hand, and the speech of Gaul, Ireland, England, Italy, Greece, Bactria, and Hindostan on the other.

Montesino tells us that at some time near the date of the Deluge, in other words, in the highest antiquity, America was invaded by a people with four leaders, named Ayar-mancotopa, Ayar-chaki, Ayar-aucca, and Ayar-uyssu. "Ayar," says Señor Lopez, "is the Sanscrit Ajar, or aje, and means primitive chief; and manco, chaki, aucca, and uyssu, mean believers, wanderers, soldiers, husbandmen. We have here a tradition of castes like that preserved in the four tribal names of Athens." The laboring class (naturally enough in a new colony) obtained the supremacy, and its leader was named Pirhua-manco, revealer of Pir, light (πῦρ, Umbrian pir). Do the laws which control the changes of language, by which a labial succeeds a labial, indicate that the Mero or Merou of Theopompus, the name of Atlantis, was carried by the colonists of Atlantis to South America (as the name of old York was transplanted in a later age to New York), and became in time Pérou or Peru? Was not the Nubian "Island of Merou," with its pyramids built by "red men," a similar transplantation? And when the Hindoo priest points to his sacred emblem with five projecting points upon it, and tells us that they typify "Mero and the four quarters of the world," does he not refer to Atlantis and its ancient universal empire?

Manco, in the names of the Peruvian colonists, it has been urged, was the same as Mannus, Manu, and the Santhal Maniko. It reminds us of Menes, Minos, etc., who are found at the beginning of so many of the Old World traditions.

The Quichuas—this invading people—were originally a fair-skinned race, with blue eyes and light and even auburn hair; they had regular features, large heads, and large bodies. Their descendants are to this day an olive-skinned people, much lighter in color than the Indian tribes subjugated by them.

They were a great race. Peru, as it was known to the Span-