NO. 1887. CENSERS AND INCENSE OF MIDDLE AMERICA— HOVd U. 119 



as none of the utensils of pottery recovered shows a definite class 

 referable to braziers, it appears likely that they were not of fixed 

 form, any suitable vessel being employed.* 



Possibly in the practice of the domestic cult the forms of the temple 

 apparatus were copied, and the hand censer, to be described later, 

 as well as a small hourglass-shape brazier may have been used to some 

 extent, thougli as a rule in all primitive religions most of tJic cult 

 apparatus is esoteric and belongs to the fane and priesthood, not 

 being seen by the uninitiated except on occasions of public ceremony. 



A small terra-cotta brazier-censer from excavations in the Calle de 

 las Escalerillas, City of Mexico, and which may have been of this class, 

 is shown (pi. 8 h), and another from the pool of Chapultepec, near the 

 city, shows a much conventionalized form (pi. 8 c). 



iVnother consideration which bears on the effectiveness and to some 

 extent the form of the censer is the ventilation required for the draft, 

 as in a stove. The Mexicans had properly solved this problem by 

 making openings, ornamental or otherwise, in the walls or the bottom 

 of the incense vessels. Gum-resins, such as copal, do not burn readily, 

 and it was customary to throw these substances in the form of powder 

 or small pellets upon live coals from the great permanent brazier fires 

 or from the domestic hearth, which was regarded sacred not only by 

 the Mexicans, but by all peoples below the plane of enlightenment. 



(6) Tripods. — In the non-Nahuatl portions of Mexico, however, 

 generally south and east of the Nahuatl area, the portable censer is 

 more commonly kno%\Ti, both from survivals and from the ancient 

 examples which have been recovered from the ruins. Here the form 

 is generally a tripod vessel, the feet hollow, modeled in a great variety 

 of grotesque shapes, supplied with rattles, or solid and plain. 

 - Doctor Plancarte found in the Matlaltzinca (Pirinda) area in the 

 Valley of Mexico a specimen with three legs and having perforations 

 of triangular and circular shape in the bottom. This authority says 

 that the censer appears in his catalogue as a utensil of transition be- 

 tween the temple and the hearth, but it may belong properly to the 

 cult, thougli such were used in the houses "para sahumar a los recien 

 llegados y viajeros 6 ^ las personas principales,"- to fumigate those 

 recently arrived and wayfarers, or important persons. 



Some Costa Rican censers have also lids, as in the Japanese Jcoro 



and the Chinese allied form, and are remarkable examples of the 



potter's craft, an illustration of which, as well as one of the tripod 



^class from Guatemala, have been kindly furnished by Dr. Walter 



Lehmann. (PI. 8 d and pi. 9 a.) 



• Sec Seler, work cited, vol. 2, 1904, p. S-lO, fig. 42, for forms found in the Calle do las Escalerillas, Mexico. 



' Catdlogo de la Coleccion del Seflor Presbltero Don Francisco Plancarte, formada, con la colabracion del 

 Dueno, por el Director del Museo Nacional de Mexico. Mexico, 1892. Exposlolon Historlco Amercaua de 

 Madrid, Para 1892. Secci6o de Mexico. 



