278 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



different parts of the world has often been used by ethnologists as a means of 

 supporting the theory that this and other arts were carried over the world by 

 tribes migrating from one common centre of creation of the human species. 



Aztec knife of chalcedony, mounted on a wooden handle, which is shaped like a human 

 figure, with its face appearing through an eagle-head mask, and has heen inlaid wirh 

 mosaic work of malachite, shell, and turquoise. Length 12£ inches. 



The argument has not much weight, and a larger view of the subject quite 

 supersedes it. 



" We may put the question in this way. In Asia and in Europe the use of 

 stone tools and weapons has always characterized a very low state of civiliza- 

 tion ; and such implements are only found among savage tribes living by the 

 chase, or just beginning to cultivate the ground, and to emerge from the condi- 

 tion of mere barbarians. Now, if the Mexicans got their civilization from 

 Europe, it must have been from some people unacquainted with the use of 

 iron, if not of bronze. Iron abounds in Mexico, not only in the state of ore, 

 but occurring nearly pure in aerolites of great size, as at Cholula, and at Zaca- 

 tecas, not far from the great ruins there ; so that the only reason for their 

 not using it must have been ignorance of its qualities. 



" The Arabian Nights' story of the mountain which consisted of a single 

 loadstone finds its literal fulfilment in Mexico. Not far from Huetamo, on the 

 road towards the Pacific, there is a conical hill composed entirely of magnetic 

 iron-ore. The blacksmiths in the neighbourhood, with no other apparatus than 

 their common forges, make it directly into wrought iron, which they use for all 

 ordinary purposes. 



" Now, in supposing civilization to be transmitted from one country to ano- 

 ther, we must measure it by the height of its lowest point, as we measure the 

 strength of a chain by the strength of the weakest link. The only civilization 

 that the Mexicans can have received from the Old World must have been from 

 some people whose cutting implements were of sharp stone, consequently, as 

 we must conclude by analogy, some very barbarous and ignorant tribe. 



" From this point we must admit that the inhabitants of Mexico raised them- 

 selves, independently, to the extraordinary degree of culture which distin- 

 guished them when Europeans first became aware of their existence. The 

 curious distribution of their knowledge shows plainly that they found it for 

 themselves, and did not receive it by transmission. We find a wonderful 

 acquaintance with astronomy, even to such details as the real cause of eclipses, 

 and the lengt h of the year given by intercalations of surprising accuracy ; and, 

 at the same time, no knowledge whatever of the art of writing alphabetically, 

 for their hieroglyphics are nothing but suggestive pictures. They had carried 

 the art of gardening to a high degree of perfection; but, though there were 

 two kinds of ox, and the buffalo at no great distance from them in the coun- 

 t rics t hey had already passed through in their migration from the north, they 

 had no idea of the employment of beasts of burden, nor of the use of milk. 



