Did the Pharaohs, the Babylonians, and the Indians borrow civilization from Mexico?

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Opportunity allowed me to visit the land of Mexico three months before the last war, and a friend invited me to take dinner at one of the great restaurants of Mexico City, the capital. My eye was caught by the dress of the young ladies working in the restaurant, for this dress reminded me of what I had so often seen in the Cairo Museum among the Pharaonic mummies — especially since it did not differ, from head-covering down to sandal, from the attire of woman in the age of the Pharaohs, whether in its cut, its colors, or its patterns.

And why had the owner of the restaurant chosen for his working girls the garments of the daughters of the Nile in the Pharaonic age? I put this question to my companion, and he smiled and said: "This costume is nothing other than the costume of the women of Mexico in olden times."

This answer stirred my attention and my eagerness to discover the historical link between Egypt and Mexico, and my interest in it grew when I saw, in the plain of Teotihuacán at the bend of the Valley of Mexico, fifty kilometers from the capital, and at Xochicalco and Cholula, pyramids standing like the pyramids of Egypt, built upon a geometric base so as to serve as a sundial marking the seasons of the year, like the Great Pyramid of Giza. I asked myself, too, whether Egyptian culture had reached the American continent, carrying with it the design of the pyramids; indeed I let my thinking run further than that — to won-

dering whether the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the art of embalming that went with it, had also accompanied, on its journey from Egypt to Mexico, the scheme of the pyramids, given the bond between the two — the more so because the method of embalm-ing was one and the same among the Pharaohs and the inhabitants of South America, differing not even in the smallest details.

This interest in the past aroused in me a curiosity to observe the living of today as well, to inquire into their circumstances and to see whether a resemblance still exists between Egypt and Mexico in the present age.

One would suppose any likeness between the two countries to be ruled out, for the land of Mexico stands upon lofty mountains cut through by deep valleys, and in its people appear the hardness of rocks and the fierceness of eagles, while Egypt spreads out around the fertile, well-watered valley of the Nile, and in its inhabitants appear the softness of rivers and the sweetness of the birds' song. And yet I have noticed many points of resem-blance, down to our own day, between Egyptians and Mexicans, especially in farming circles. How often they resemble one another in the choice of colors and the shapes of the women's garments and their golden necklaces! And how closely they come together in their reliance on the old agricultural methods and their implements! This is besides their resemblance in certain old customs, such as betrothal and certain popular festivities. Indeed, the likeness between the two peoples often appears in certain foods as well:

stewed fava beans are the popular dish among the Egyptians, and likewise in Mexico corn seasoned with sour and pepper is the popular dish too. Corn is, for the Mexicans, the most important element of food; they depend on it as the Egyptian peasant depends on beans, and they use the transparent leaves of its ears as wrappers for tobacco.

Add to this that just as the Egyptian is by nature fond of hot spices, and relishes dishes laden with all sorts of peppers and allspice, so the Mexican too takes the greatest care over these spices, especially the hot ones; and their passion for them goes so far that in the city of Mérida they make fruit condiments laden with hot pepper.

Moreover, for all the differences between the Mexican and the Egyptian in certain traits of character, there are between them points of resemblance in other innate respects. Lightheartedness, love of amusement, and unconcern for the morrow are of the Mexican's nature just as they are of the nature of Egyptians of old stock. The Mexican spends his day's earnings without any reckoning for the morrow, going by the rule "spend what is in the pocket, and what is in the unseen will come."

It may be said: let us attribute this abundant resemblance between the two peoples to the effect of climate and heat in both countries, since each of them lies near the equator. Very well — if

we take that view, and still wish history to have some connection with that resemblance, how then are we to explain the resemblance between them in their distinctive