Who can give the etymology of the name _Magi_, the learned men amongst the Chaldees. We only know that its meaning is the same as _Maya_ in Hindostan: magician, astronomer, learned man. If we come to Greece, where we find again the name _Maia_, it is mentioned as that of a goddess, as in Hindostan, the mother of the gods: only we are told that she was the daughter of Atlantis--born of Atlantis. But if we come to the lands beyond the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, then we find a country called MAYAB, on account of the porosity of its soil; that, as a sieve (_Mayab_), absorbs the water in an incredibly short time. Its inhabitants took its name from that of the country, and called themselves _Mayas_. It is a fact worthy of notice, that in their hieroglyphic writings the sign employed by the Egyptians to signify a _Lord_, a _Master_, was the image of a sieve. Would not this seem to indicate that the western invaders who subdued the primitive inhabitants of the valley of the Nile, and became the lords and masters of the land, were people from MAYAB; particularly if we consider that the usual character used to write the name of Egypt was the sieve, together with the sign of land? We know that the _Mayas_ deified and paid divine honors to their eminent men and women after their death. This worship of their heroes they undoubtedly carried, with other customs, to the countries where they emigrated; and, in due course of time, established it among their inhabitants, who came to forget that MAYAB was a locality, converted it in to a personalty: and as some of their gods came from it, Maya was considered as the _Mother of the Gods_, as we see in Hindostan and Greece. It would seem probable that the Mayas did not receive their civilization from the inhabitants of the Asiatic peninsulas, for the religious lores and customs they have in common are too few to justify this assertion. They would simply tend to prove that relations had existed between them at some epoch or other; and had interchanged some of their habits and beliefs as it happens, between the civilized nations of our days. This appears to be the true side of the question; for in the figures sculptured on the obelisks of Copan the Asiatic type is plainly discernible; whilst the features of the statues that adorn the celebrated temples of Hindostan are, beyond all doubts, American.