226 



The art of producing fire, by rubbing together 

 two kinds of wood of different hardness, is of 

 remote antiquity. We find it among the nations 

 of both continents : in the Homeric times, ac- 

 cording to M. Visconti, the invention was at- 

 tributed to Mercury*. The disk, which lies on 

 the body of the victim, and on which the priest 

 turns the cylindric wood, is the moqsus of the 

 Greeks f. Pliny asserts, that of all the woody 

 substances, the ivy is that which ignites best 

 when it is rubbed with laurel wood J. We have 

 found these w^etx among the Indians of the 

 Orinoco. It requires a great rapidity of motion, 

 to raise the temperature to the degree of incan- 

 descence. 



No. 9. Figure of a dead king, surrounded by 

 four flags, the eyes shut, no hands, the feet 

 wrapped up. The chair is the royal seat called 

 tlatocaicpalli, on which is represented, in the 

 Codex Borgianus (fol. 9), Adam, or Tonaca- 

 teuctli, the Lord of our fleshy and Eve, or To- 

 nacacihua. This hieroglyphical character is 

 found figured in the ritual almanack, at the 

 page which indicates the cycle of thirteen 



* Homer. Hymn, in Mercur. v. 180. 



f Apollon. Rhod. Argouaut, lib c 1, v. 1184, et SchoL 

 ad cum. 



X Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. 16, c. 77. Seneca Nat. Quast. 

 11,22. Theophr. c. 10. 



