But here is the same testimony that in the Garden of Eden there were four rivers radiating from one parent stream.  And these four rivers, as we have seen, we find in the Scandinavian traditions, and in the legends of the Chinese, the Tartars, the Singhalese, the Thibetians, the Buddhists, the Hebrews, and the Brahmans.

And not only do we find this tradition of the Garden of Eden in the Old World, but it meets us also among the civilized races of America.  The elder Montezuma said to Cortez, “Our fathers dwelt in that happy and prosperous place which they called Aztlan, which means whiteness. . . .  In this place there is a great mountain in the middle of the water which is called Culhuacan, because it has the point somewhat turned over toward the bottom; and for this cause it is called Culhuacan, which means ‘crooked mountain.’” He then proceeds to describe the charms of this favored land, abounding in birds, game, fish, trees, “fountains enclosed with elders and junipers, and alder-trees both large and beautiful.”  The people planted “maize, red peppers, tomatoes, beans, and all kinds of plants, in furrows.”

Here we have the same mountain in the midst of the water which Plato describes—­the same mountain to which all the legends of the most ancient races of Europe refer.

The inhabitants of Aztlan were boatmen. (Bancroft’s “Native Races,” vol. v., p. 325.) E. G. Squier, in his “Notes on Central America,” p. 349, says, “It is a significant fact that in the map of their migrations, presented by Gemelli, the place of the origin of the Aztecs is designated by the sign of water, Atl standing for Atzlan, a pyramidal temple with grades, and near these a palm-tree.”  This circumstance did not escape the attention of Humboldt, who says, “I am astonished at finding a palm-tree near this teocalli.  This tree certainly does not indicate a northern origin. . . .  The possibility that an unskilful artist should unintentionally represent a tree of which he had no knowledge is so great, that any argument dependent on it hangs upon a slender thread.” ("North Americans of Antiquity,” p. 266.)

The Miztecs, a tribe dwelling on the outskirts of Mexico, had a tradition that the gods, “in the day of obscurity and darkness,” built “a sumptuous palace, a masterpiece of skill, in which they male their abode upon a mountain.  The rock was called ‘The Place of Heaven;’ there the gods first abode on earth, living many years in great rest and content, as in a happy and delicious land, though the world still lay in obscurity and darkness.  The children of these gods made to themselves a garden, in which they put many trees, and fruit-trees, and flowers, and roses, and odorous herbs.  Subsequently there came a great deluge, in which many of the sons and daughters of the gods perished.” (Bancroft’s “Native Races,” vol. iii., p. 71.) Here we have a distinct reference to Olympus, the Garden of Plato, and the destruction of Atlantis.