lso to
suggest that, in addition to borrowing the chief divinities of their
pantheon from India, the Maya people's original name was derived from
the same mythology.[154]

It is of considerable interest and importance to note that in the
earliest dated example of Maya workmanship (from Tuxtla, in the Vera
Cruz State of Mexico), for which Spinden assigns a tentative date of 235
B.C., an unmistakable elephant figures among the four hieroglyphs which
Spinden reproduces (_op. cit._, p. 171). A similar hieroglyphic sign is
found in the Chinese records of the Early Chow Dynasty (John Ross, "The
Origin of the Chinese People," 1916, P. 152).

The use of the numerals four and seven in the narrative translated by
Hernandez, as in so many other American documents, is itself, as Mrs.
Zelia Nuttall has so conclusively demonstrated,[155] a most striking and
conclusive demonstration of the link with the Old World.

Indra was not the only Indian god who was transferred to America, for
all the associated deities, with the characteristic stories of their
exploits,[156] are also found depicted with childlike directness of
incident, but amazingly luxuriant artistic phantasy, in the Maya and
Aztec codices.

We find scattered throughout the islands of the Pacific the familiar
stories of the dragon. One mentioned by the Bishop of Wellington refers
to a New Zealand dragon with jaws like a crocodile's, which spouted
water like a whale. It lived in a fresh-water lake.[157] In the same
number of the same _Journal_ Sir George Grey gives extracts from a Maori
legend of the dragon, which he compares with corresponding passages from
Spenser's "Faery Queen". "Their strict verbal and poetical conformity
with the New Zealand legends are such as at first to lead to the
impression either that Spenser must have stolen his images and language
from the New Zealand poets, or that they must have acted unfairly by the
English bard" (p. 362). The Maori legend describes the dragon as "in
size large as a monstrous whale, in shape like a hideous lizard; for in
its huge head, its limbs, its tail, its scales, its tough skin, its
sharp spines, yes, in all these it resembled a lizard" (p. 364).

Now the attributes of the Chinese and Japanese dragon as the controller
of rain, thunder and lightning are identical with those of the American
elephant-headed god. It also is associated with the East and with the
tops of mountains. It is identified with the Indian Naga, b