118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vor. 42. 



appears to be a matter worthy of inquiry. The relationship in form 

 between the braziers and the mortuary vases and their general agree- 

 ment in decoration show at least that they have some concept in 

 common. 



Sahagun * states that the Mexicans put the incinerated bones of the 

 nobles in an urn, with a chalchiutl, and buried them in a room of the 

 house and every day they placed offerings on the sepulclier. Also: 

 "They burnt the belongings of the dead because they pretended that 

 these things then went to the land of the dead." 



According to Brantz Mayer, the Tlaltelolco vases contained skulls 

 when found, and if only this portion of the body was inurned, may 

 not the skulls be those of sacrifices placed in a brazier for interment ? 



The cinerary urns of Tlacolula were for burial of priegts. Chavero ^ 

 figures one of these, a seated being witlx hands on the knees, an 

 elaborate girdle, ear plugs, and modified animal headdress slio\ving 

 a row of teeth. Breath signs also depend from the mouth. It is 

 probable, and Seler ^ agrees with me, that the braziers were some- 

 times used as mortuary urns for the burial of a cacique. 



II. Censers for Special Use. 



1. PORTABLE. 



(a) The solidarity and pervasiveness of the aboriginal religion of 

 Mexico is strikingly shown from the observations of the chroniclers, 

 who state that the people were required to reenact in their houses, 

 in abridged form, ceremonies following those held in the central 

 religious edifices, and from such glimpses one may gather an inkling 

 of the tedious rites of the domestic cult. Not even among the 

 Pueblos, where all activities are regulated by or tinged with the sys- 

 tem of religious observance, has such a binding power been displayed 

 as in Mexico, where each house was a temple in miniature.* 



Thus the domestic cult required sufficiently elaborate paraphernalia 

 and apparatus to comply mth the formulated observances prescribed 

 by priestly law and applicable to the innumerable ceremonies of the 

 religious calendar as well as to classes of persons, as the merchants, 

 or to fraternities. Since the common act of all observance was the 

 burning of incense, the domestic censer was a vessel whose use was 

 almost universal. 



It is unfortunate that no description by Sahagun, or other writers, 

 reveals the form of the domestic brazier-censer of the Nahuas, but 



1 Work cited, p. 224. 



« Mexico, p. 600. 



3 Letter of April 13, 1911. 



« "Las Casas tells us that when the Guatemalans built a new house they were careful to dedicate an 

 apartment to the worship of the household gods; there they burned incense and oiTered domestic sacrifices 

 upon an altar erected for the purpose." Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 2, p. 786. Las Casas Hist. Apologetica 

 M. S. Cap., 124. 



