HEATING AND LIGHTING UTENSILS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM 45 



saAv it in use on a ship sailing from Cumana on the north coast of 

 Venezuela. (PI. 39, %. 3, Cat. No. 153182, St. Vincent, West Indies; 

 F. A. Ober; 7 inches (17.7 cm.) high.) From Java comes a curious 

 firefly lamp said to have been used by a burglar. It consists of a 

 small shallow wooden dish having wax on the bottom, to which fire- 

 flies taken from a cane tube were stuck. A lid pivoted at one end 

 closes over the dark lantern. (PI. 39, figs. 1 and 2, Cat. No. 175615, 

 Djok-ja Karta, Java; Miss Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore; 2 inches (5 

 cm.) long. 



It has been suggested somewhat fancifully that the skull of an 

 animal may have been used as a vessel for the lamp in the early 

 stages of the invention. A skull would furnish a suitable reservoir, 

 but there is no evidence of the use of entire skulls for lamps even 

 as a makeshift. There is, however, abundant data on the use of 

 shells for the purpose. It would be safer to originate the lamp 

 from shells of suitable form than from any other natural products. 

 Shells which have been converted into lamps would have suggested 

 to the early inventors the spout lamp, the smooth-lipped clam, the 

 simple dish lamp, and the scallop the grooves in which the wick 

 might be rested. In the Orkney and Shetland Islands a fusus shell 

 was hung horizontally with cords and the wick drawn along the 

 natural channel. This primitive lamp was in common use by the 

 islanders. (PL 40, fig. 2, Cat. No. 151147; Henry Balfour; 6.5 

 inches (16.5 cm.) long.) Another method of hanging the shell lamp 

 is by a single cord. A saucer lamp formed of one valve of a pecten 

 shell is in common use by the Aino of Yezo, Japan. It is an insep- 

 arable companion of the box fireplace of that people set up in 

 spread prongs of a split stick stuck in the earth or in a forked 

 branch. In it was burnt fish oil by means of a fiber wick, as in the 

 equally simple Japanese saucer lamps. (PI. 40, fig. 3, Cat. No. 

 (4838), collected by Romyn Hitchcock; 5.7 inches (14.5 cm.) diam- 

 eter.) There is a great transition of culture between the Aino shell 

 lamp and the artistic lamp of decorated porcelain from China, but 

 no improvement. (PI. 40, fig. 4, Cat. No. 175863, China; W. W. 

 Rockhill; 6.9 inches (17.5 cm.) high.) A shell lamp from the south 

 coast of Brittany is probably a reminiscence of the early use of 

 shells as light vessels. It has, however, been assembled with iron 

 wire and follows the idea of the familiar crusie with drip catcher. 

 (PI. 40, fig. 1, Cat. No. 151646; collected by Henry Balfour; 4 inches 

 (10 cm.) diameter.) Some examples of simple lamps of pottery 

 show the probable migration of Chinese forms and are figured on 

 Plate 41(2. Figure 9 is a pottery lamp of glazed ware from the 

 Shan States, Burma. (Cat. No. 164922; collected by Henry Bal- 

 four; 2.3 inches (6 cm.) diameter.) Figure 11 is a pottery dish 

 from Singapore. (Cat. No. 167556; A. H. Webb; 4.1 inches (10.5 



