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 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 X- We have 
found these 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 flesh, 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. 
t Apollon, Rbod. Argonaut, libo 1, v. 1184, et SchoL 
ad €um. 
t Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. 10, c. 77. Seneca Nat. Qusest. 
II, 22. Tbeopbr. c. 10. 
