134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vdi. 42. 



There is a tree from which exudes the white resin called copal, which is the incense 

 offered to the gods by the Mexicans. They sell it now very much in the markets, 

 because it is employed as a remedy and is good for a great number of things. It is 

 produced in the Provinces of Tepequaciulco, Yonala, and Conixco. 



There exists a tree called ocotzoguanitl, "resin tree" (Liquidambar styraci/olia). It 

 is high, large, and has leaves like the willow. It exudes a resin that they employ in 

 the reeds that serve for smoking.' 



Prof. Frederick Starr figures modern Mexican incense burners, and 

 gives numerous instances of the continuance of the practice which 

 still maintains the demand for copal, and rolls of this gum wrapped 

 in corn husk may now be found on sale in the markets of Mexico. ^ It 

 is usually formed into a roll about three-fourths of an inch in diameter 

 and 6 inches long, enveloped in corn husk, or wild plantain, tied at 

 either end and around the roll with strips of fiber. The National 

 Museum has a specimen (Cat. No. 261999, U.S.N.M.) collected in 

 Tampico by Dr. Edward Palmer. (Fig. 12.) 



Tobacco was also a sacred herb, and its smoke was unquestionably 

 incense. The wild tobacco plant is mcorporated in the mixture used 

 as incense by the Hopi and some other American tribes. Seler states 

 that tobacco ' 'played precisely the same part among the priests and 



Fig. 12.— Copal prep.\red for market, Tampico, Mexico. Collected by Edward Palmer. 



medicine men or ancient Mexico as it has from the remotest times 

 down to the present day among the various savage tribes of North 

 and South America." ^ It wais powdered and mixed with incense and 

 formed into pellets which were carried in a pouch by officiating priests. 

 In other parts of the United States artemesia, the balsam root, cedar 

 tops, sweet grass, and, among the Siksika, a sweet gum of some kind 

 were burned for incense.* 



There must exist implements and utensils connected with the gath- 

 ermg and preparation of incense, but which are not recognized as 

 such. The powdering of copal, mixing it with tobacco and other 

 substances, forming it into pellets or nodules with the aid of heat, 

 manipulations necessary to prepare the incense for formal offering, in 

 all likelihood did not necessitate the employment of special apparatus, 

 but was performed with domestic utensils, such as the metate and 

 mortar, cooking vessels or comal, the pellets formed with the hands 

 like any plastic substance. The industry in the ancient days also 



> Sahagun, work cited, p. 732. 



* Notes upon the Ethnography of Mexico. Davenport Academy of Science, vol. 9, Davenport, Iowa, 

 1902. 



2 Bulletin 28, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1904, pp. 146-147. 



* Handbooli of American Indians, Bulletin 30, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1907-1910. 



