revolutions of the solar disk, and the one-legged bird of Russian
mythology, associated with a revolving house and fire-drill. In the
Mexican Codices the Mexican Tezcatlipoca, held by one foot to the centre
of the north, describes a circle around this. His foot evidently
constitutes the fire-drill, which, inserted in the socket, causes smoke,
also rain and a serpent to issue from it (see 5 and 6). One figure,
representing one leg only in the fire-socket, and a head, exhibiting a
small, smoking fire-socket, appears, in the light of comparative research,
as a cursive method of representing the fire-drill god, universally
associated with Ursa Major.

It is remarkable that, in one case water and in another smoke, indicating
fire, issues from the socket of Tezcatlipoca's fire-drill, and that,
opposite to the picture in the Borgian Codex, representing the kindling of
fire on the fire-altar, we have the image of a pool of water from which
four figures spring toward the cardinal points (see fig. 29).

It is only after recognizing that, like the people of the Old World, the
Mexicans associated with the fire-drill and socket not only the
distribution of fire and heat, but also of water, that we also fully grasp
the symbolism of the symbol of the "Black or Night Sun," from the "Life of
the Indians," which is but one of many simple forms exhibiting main
features which recur on the highly elaborated Mexican stone of the Great
Plan (fig. 73_b_). When placed in juxtaposition the undoubted resemblance
between the Babylonian image of Shamash and the Mexican image, as well as
the deep-seated identity of these two quadruplicate symbols stands out
clearly: in the Babylonian, wavy lines emanating from the centre convey
the idea of some fluid essence. In the Mexican, instead of the wavy lines,
the conventional representation of a drop of water is depicted--the idea in
both cases being obviously identical and agreeing with the primeval
universal conception of heat or fire, and water emanating from a common
source, and flowing to the cardinal points. In both cases an axle or
socket is represented, and it is instructive to study the different ways
in which the symbol recurs in the Mexican Codices.

[Illustration.]

Figure 73.

Referring back to fig. 1, 1, reproduced from the Codex Borgia, we see the
axle with rays issuing from a circular band of water. A receptacle filled
with w