38 



AN AZTECK HATCHET, 



PLATE XXVIII. 



This hatchet, made of a compact feldspar passing 

 into the real jade of M. de Saussure, is loaded 

 with hieroglyphics. I am indebted for it to the 

 kindness of Don Andres Manuel del Rio, profes- 

 sor of mineralogy in the school of mines at 

 Mexico, and author of an excellent treatise on 

 Oryctognosy. I have deposited it in the king of 

 Prussia's cabinet at Berlin. Jade, compact feld- 

 spar (didder feldspath), Lydian stone, and cer- 

 tain varieties of basalt, are all of them mineral 

 substances, which, in both continents, as well as 

 in the South Sea islands, furnished the savage 

 and half civilized nations with the first materials 

 for their hatchets, and various offensive weapons. 

 As the Greeks and Romans employed brass long 

 after the introduction of iron, so the Mexicans 

 and Peruvians made use of stone hatchets, when 

 copper and brass were very common among 

 them. Notwithstanding our long and frequent 



