122 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.42. 



Ayme. Cat. No. 131452, U.S.N.M.) (PI. 10 h.) A number of 

 similar censers have been found. 



(c) Among the Lacandones of Chiapas, according to Tozzer, the 

 ladle incensario occurs, but plays an unimportant part in the rites 

 and is used only in the ceremony when the new hraseros are installed. 

 It consists of a dipperlike vessel with a head on the side next the 

 handle, and is called akna, "the mother." Tozzer discusses this 

 type of incensario ^ and says that the handle terminates in a hand in 

 which offerings of food are made, while incensarios of the older 

 culture had serpent heads. A handle of an incensario from Hon- 

 duras is figured in plate 19 of Tozzer's work. Seler ^ figures speci- 

 mens from Coban in the collections of Sarg, Sapper, and Dieseldorf, 

 in the Museum fiir Volkerkunde, Berlin, that appear to be incense 

 spoon handles. They are of animal forms, are short, and some of 

 them have a foot ; and, while no vessels to which they were attached 

 have been found, it is probable that the identification by Seler is 

 correct. 



From the Zapotec area, Oaxaca, numerous examples have been 

 found of a crude ladle of coarse, dark-gray pottery, the bowl of 

 which has a flat bottom with six or seven holes punched therein. 

 The handle is hoUow and is truncated squarely at the end. (Cat. Nos. 

 109813, 109814, U.S.N.M., Oaxaca, Mexico. Collected by L. H. 

 Aym6.) (PL 10 c.^) 



Eingsborough * figures a specimen in the fourth volume of his 

 work. The presumption is that these are censers for domestic use. 



Through the courtesy of Dr. Walter Lehmann, a photograph of a 

 handle censer from Guanacaste, Peninsula of Nicoya, Costa Rica, 

 has been secured. The specimen is from the Velasco collection, 

 National Museum, San Jose de Costa Rica. (PL 12 c, d.) Its 

 resemblance to the Nahuatl censer ladle is apparent, and Lehmann 

 cites its locality as ''the Mexican enclave of the Peninsula Nicoya." 

 In point of specialization it is hardly so far advanced as the Nahuatl 

 variety, its decoration is southern, and in some lespects it approxi- 

 mates the Zapotec modified tripod. (See pi. 10 &.) 



Prof. Marshall H. Saville, while carrying on the work of the Heye 

 Expedition to Ecuador, discovered at Manabi a dipperlike vessel, 

 the end of the handle terminating in a clenched fist, resembling in 

 this respect some of the censers found in southern Mexico. It is 

 very small (3J inches long) and is classed as a censer.^ 



1 Work cited, 1907, p. HO. 



2 Work cited, 1908, vol. 3, pp. 604-605. 



3 Measurements: Diameter, 5 inches; heiglit, IJ inches; length of handle, A\ inches; diameter of handle, 

 \-^ inches. 



< Antiquities of Mexico, London, 1830-1848. 



£■ Contr. South Amer. Arch. The George G. Heye Expedition. Antiquities of Manabi, Ecuador. New 

 York, 1907, vol. 1, pi. 64, fig. 5. 



