NO. 1887. CENSERS AND INCENSE OF MIDDLE AMERICA— HOUGH. 115 



duced in Tozzer's report. Stephens also found a copal altar in a 

 room in the ruins of Tuloom, east coast of Yucatan. * 



(c) Another class of stationary braziers are the large pottery 

 vases of hourglass form which have been found in greater number 

 in and about the City of Mexico than elsewhere. On account of 

 their size and decoration, they are remarkable examples of the potter's 

 art, while their form and decorative treatment seem to connect 

 them closely with the genius of Nahuatl culture, whose spread by 

 concjuest has carried them far into Central America. This form 

 may be regarded as the most characteristic of the middle American 

 censer-braziers. Though not definitely mentioned by the early 

 chroniclei's,' who speak usually of stone braziers when the material 

 is given, they were surely in use in Mexico at the time of the con- 

 (^uest, those in the Museo Nacional de Mexico, ^ being the only 

 form of brazier which has been recovered from the ruins of the ancient 

 city. 



One of the most striking exhibits of the great National Museum 

 of Alexico are the enormous pottery vases, two of which were found 

 in the ruins of the temple of the curato at Ixtapalapa, where was 

 celebrated the cyclical feast of the kindling of the new fire, and one 

 from Santiago Tlaltelolco. The vases each bears a human figure 

 in high relief painted in colors, the face framed in the gaping mouth 

 of a monster, suggesting a mask. 



The specimen (pi. 5 a) from Ixtapalapa has an hourglass body, 

 decorated with the figure of the god of fire (?), whose face appears 

 somewhat in side view, who wears a girdle of human hands, has a 

 circular sign hke that of Chac-Mool (gorget?) in his middle, side 

 loops or knots, and skirt hanging down slantingly on either side. 

 The upper rim of the vase is decorated with hanging spikes. Another 

 specimen from the same locality is similar to the one just described, 

 but the legs and feet of the figure (pi. 5 h) are better preserved. 

 The third specimen, from Tlaltelolco, is almost denuded, giving one 

 a view of the form of the vase. (PI. 5 c.) A magnificent example, 

 locality unknown, of rather slender form and in excellent preserva- 

 tion, shows excellently the conventionalized human figure wearing 

 a crownlike headdress and with expanded wings springing from the 

 sides of the body. (PL 6 6.) The cinerary vase from Tlallelolco 

 (pi. 6 «) suggests in form the pottery brazier shown in plate 5 c and 

 is a remarkable specimen in modeling and color. This vase was 

 described by Brantz Mayer,^ who says that it is 22 inches high, 15^ 

 inches in diameter, and that when found it had a lid and was filled 

 with human skulls. 



> Yucatan, vol. 2, pp. 3S7-409. 



* CatAlogo do Dopartamento de Arqueologid del Musoo National. Jesus ilalindo y Villa. Mexico, 1897. 



» Mexico, vol. 2, 1853, p. 274. 



