Note 23 — MEXICAN COPPER TOOLS.

With our first glance at the picture of Tepozcolula we were induced to believe that we had found therein a representation of the instrument which Petrus Martyr called a “dolabra,” and Sahagun “azuela.” The translation of the one is, pick or hoe, and of the other, cooper’s adze. Both of these, therefore, would have been instruments in which the blade and its edge are at right angles to their handle, and the management of which requires both hands of the workman. This supposition is refuted by the picture of the carpenter (cut 10), who is distinctly seen to hold the piece of wood in the left and the tool in his right hand.