120 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. 42. 



Fig. 5.— Bowl censer, Lacan 

 DONEs, Chiapas, Mexico. 



The writer purchased in Oaxaca in 1899 a tripod incense burner of 

 terra cotta, the rim decorated with a pair of masked human figures 

 with upraised hands, a pair of birds, two flowers, and two U-shaped 

 figures, probably snakes. Tlie figures on the inner and outer rim 

 and bottom of the bowl are painted rudely with white, black, and a 

 blue resembling ultramarine. The figure in the bottom is evidently 



a sun symbol. I was informed by the 

 dealer that this vessel was used by the 

 Indians for burning copal and that the 

 figures were ''santos" of the Indians. 

 Diameter, 7 inches; height to rim, 7 inches; 

 to headdress of figure, 9| inches. (Cat. 

 No. 204692, U.S.N.M.) (PI. 9 &.^) 



(c) Bowls. — The Lacandones of Chiapas, 

 Mexico, observe a complicated incense rite 

 yearly, when new incense burners are made 

 and consecrated to the gods.^ The censers 

 are of homely vase or bowl form, painted 

 black, wliite, and red with native colors, have a mask projecting 

 like a bowsprit from the edge, and are provided with holes to 

 insure ventilation. (Fig. 5.) It is customary to place in the 

 open mouth of the mask offerings of food and drink and to burn 

 nodules of copal in the vessel.^ The copal nodules are formed and 

 stuck to a board having a handle 

 at one side, and they are symbolic- 

 ally male and female, resembling 

 in form the nodules of copal found 

 in excavating the ancient sites of 

 Yucatan, and reminding one of the 

 joss sticks and pastilles of the 

 Orient. (Fig. 6.) In the censer are 

 placed j ade figures representing the 

 gods of the Lacandones, and over them the copal is burnt. Palm 

 leaves waved in the smoke are thought efficacious in driving away 

 disease. The ceremony and the ceremonial use of the Lacandones 

 censer is a remarkable example of the survival of an ancient custom, 

 and throws light on much that was unknown of the cult practices 



Fig. 6.- 



-Copal nodules, Lacandones, Chia- 

 pas, Mexico. 



of this region. 



1 For discussion of the headdress of an image on a Oaxaca censer, see Seler in Bulletin 28, Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, 1904, pi. 35. , 



2 Tozzer, A comparative study of the Mayas and Lacandones, Publ. Arch. Inst. America, New York, 

 1907, p. 107. 



Maler, Mem. Peabody Mus., vol. 2, No. 1, p. 28. 



Seler, work cited, 1908, vol. 3, pp. 585-589. 



8 Stephens states that incense was burnt on the stone projecting from the mouth of a gigantic mask, the 

 "Cara Gigantesca," at Izamal, Yucatan (Stephens, Yucatan, vol. 2, pp. 234-236), suggesting the food offer- 

 ings in the mouth of the mask on the Lacandones braziers. 



