"M. Dupaix noticed
an indication of the use of the compass in the centre of one of the
sides, the figures on the same side representing a kneeling, bearded,
turbaned man between two fierce heads, perhaps of crocodiles, which
appear to defend the entrance to a mountainous and wooded country. The
reverse presents a serpent coiled around a fruit-tree, and an eagle on a
hill." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iv., p. 118.) The mountain leans
to one side: it is a "culhuacan," or crooked mountain.
We find in Sanchoniathon's "Legends of the Phoenicians" that Ouranus,
the first god of the people of Atlantis, "devised Baetulia, contriving
stones that moved as having life, which were supposed to fall from
heaven." These stones were probably magnetic loadstones; in other words,
Ouranus, the first god of Atlantis, devised the mariner's compass.
I find in the "Report of United States Explorations for a Route for a
Pacific Railroad" a description of a New Mexican Indian priest, who
foretells the result of a proposed war by placing a piece of wood in a
bowl of water, and causing it to turn to the right or left, or sink or
rise, as he directs it.
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