124 PROCEEDINOS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.42. 



pierced and much worked, that they called tlemaitl {tletl, fire; maitl, arm). They 

 had also all kinds of copal, and they prepared portions for use in the ceremonies cus- 

 tomary in the service of that god. The chief priests, when a certain moment of the 

 service came, took coals in their censers, threw on them copal or incense and incensed 

 the images of Uitzilopochtli that they had installed in the temple a little while before. 

 This ceremony was not only made in this place, it was repeated in all the houses by 

 their proprietors, who incensed the images of the gods which they had at home. When 

 they had finished the incensing they went to deposit the ashes in a round hearth, 

 called tlexictli {tletl, fire; xictli, navel or cord, leather band), which was placed in the 

 midst of the court where it was elevated two spans above the soil.* 



The United States National Museum collection contains numerous 

 handles of the tlemaitl, all of the serpent design,^ which was that com- 

 monly used by the Nahuas, and a bowl with a portion of the handle 

 remaining, collected by Dr. Edward Palmer from a cave at Dos Cami- 

 nos, 25 miles e^st of Acapulco. The latter specimen is of coarse 

 brown paste, the handle a hollow tube, the bowl even in outline and 

 perforated with a design consisting of four triangles, arranged as in 

 the Maltese cross, repeated three times, and with a triangle in each 

 of the broad spaces between the four-part design. A plain circular 

 area is left in the bottom of the bowl. The under surface has bands 

 ornamented with small papillae, and on one side of the bowl, near the 

 edge, project two spurs, perhaps rudimentary feet. (Diameter of 

 bowl, 7f inches; height, 2 J inches. Cat. No. 173069, U.S.N.M.) 

 (PI. 12 a.) The handle is from the Hill of Tepeyac, Mexico, D. F., 

 and was collected by W. W. Blake. It is tubular, of red paste, and 

 shows obscure coiling marks. The head of the fire serpent has 

 extended tongue, open mouth, projecting teeth, and a band across 

 the neck. The mouth of the serpent does not communicate with the 

 hollow of the tube. (Length, 12 inches; diameter, 1^ inches. Cat. 

 No. 99081, U.S.N.M.) (PI. 12 6.) 



The writer may be pardoned for introducing at this point for com- 

 parison an oriental hand censer which presents remarkable similarity 

 to the Mexican hand censers just described. The specimen is from 

 Japan and is described as an "ancient hand censer," used in temple 

 worship for directing the smoke of incense toward the images of the 

 gods. A dragon is coiled about the handle, and the latter in turn 

 passes around the middle of a constricted vase with foot. It com- 

 bines the sedentary Icoro with the hand censer, more fuUy than the 

 Chinese type. (Cat. No. 6330, U.S.N.M. Collected by the late Gen. 

 O. E. Wood, U. S. Army.) (PL 11.) The Chinese employ a similar 

 hand censer, but more conventionalized in design. 



(e) A tubular incense apparatus, through which or from which 

 smoke may be blown by expulsion of the breath, was anciently used 

 in Mexico, as witnessed by the sculptures of the Palenque altar and 



» Sahagun, work cited, p. 101. 



' The handle sometimes termioated in the talons of the eagle. See Seler, work cited, vol. 2, 1908, p. 862. 



