38 
AN AZTECK HATCHET* 
PLATE XXVIIT. 
This hatchet^ made of a compact feldspar passing 
into the real jade of M. de Saussiire, 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 (dichter 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 
