This, too, is the ordinary form of the altars dedicated to the
Assyrian god of fertility. In exceptional instances the cone is
introduced upon one or the other of the sides, or is distinguishable in
the always accompanying mystical tree." (Edinburgh Review, July, 1870.)
If the reader will again turn to page 104 of this work he will see that
the tree appears on the top of the pyramid or mountain in both the Aztec
representations of Aztlan, the original island-home of the Central
American races.
The writer just quoted believes that Mr. Faber is correct in his opinion
that the pyramid is a transcript of the sacred mountain which stood in
the midst of Eden, the Olympus of Atlantis. He adds:
"Thomas Maurice, who is no mean authority, held the same view. He
conceived the use to which pyramids in particular were anciently applied
to have been threefold-namely, as tombs, temples, and observatories; and
this view he labors to establish in the third volume of his 'Indian
Antiquities.' Now, whatever may be their actual date, or with whatsoever
people they may have originated, whether in Africa or Asia, in the lower
valley of the Nile or in the plains of Chaldea, the pyramids of Egypt
were unquestionably destined to very opposite purposes.
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