134 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



for the money, and afterward burnt. Humboldt states that straw 

 effigies were burnt at the Pascua pageant at Cartagena, Cuba." 



In Tibet "there is also the sacrifice done by fire, and many things 

 are thrown into it. This is a long rite, and it is celebrated with songs 

 and music and much solemnity, but not often. "^^ 



Bonvalot speaks of encamping in Tibet "upon fallow gi'ound close 

 to a fine elm with an obo beside it. Under the shade of the tree is 

 a sort of altar, analogous to the ara of the Romans, in the hollow 

 part of which we can see ashes and charcoal, odoriferous plants being 

 burnt upon it in honor of the divinity. Resting against the trunk of 

 the tree is a whole bundle of sticks with rags and slabs of wood with 

 prayers written on them, while on the branches are a number of skins 

 of lambs and goats in an advanced state of decomposition, which have 

 been hung there as votive offerings." ^® 



The use of fire in the skull cult among the Dyaks of the Baram 

 River, Sarawak, Borneo, was observed by Dr. A. C. Had don. 



"The skulls were decorated with strips of palm leaf, fed with bits 

 of pork and bamboo cups of spirit (barak) ; beneath them a fire is 

 always kept burning; all this to keep the skull fed, cheered, and 

 warm to insure good crops and other blessings." ^ 



INCENSE 



While smoke customs ai'e general among the uncivilized American 

 tribes, definite incense rites connected with a more or less involved 

 religious system are only found among the civilized. Beginning 

 with the Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States, the cus- 

 tom reaches a great expansion in Mexico, Central America, Peru, 

 and other civilized peoples of South America. 



CLASSIFICATION OF CENSERS »' 



I. Communal or General. 



Stationary 



(a) Tribals, society, and family fireplaces, fire boxes, and fire alters, 

 Several ideas are involved in this division, such as preservation and renewal 

 of fire for the health and well-being of the larger and smaller social unit or reli- 

 gious organizations, as well as the beings themselves; sacrifice to fire by various 

 oblations, with the idea of feeding, attracting, appeasing, or beseeching the unseen 

 beings. These and other unformulated acts associated with fire have been ob- 

 served throughout the world among peoples of different degrees of culture. 



(6) Great stone braziers, generally of hourglass shape, erected on masonry bases. 

 before temples or shrines. (Mexico.) 



•' Macgilivray's Humboldt, p. 268. 



■' Horace della Penna. in Narrative of the Mission of George Boyle, etc., pp. 336-337. London, 1376. 

 Edited by C. R. Markhan. 



»s a Bonvalot. Across Thibet, New York, 1892, p. 34. 



»«A. C. Haddon, 1901, p. 332. 



"E.xtractcd from Censers and Incense of Mexico and Central America, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol.. 

 42, 1012, p, 109. 



