FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 137 



this appears to be the most widely diffused idea connected with the 

 burning of incense in worship, while offerings to the fire which at one 

 time were customary may have been for the double purpose of pleas- 

 ing the spirits with incense and of feeding them. The offering was 

 consumed by the fire and dissappeared from human sight, thus being 

 analogous to the practice of throwing offerings into springs or 

 rivers. 



J. N. B. Hewitt informs the writer that the Iroquois used tobacco 

 smoke to make authentic a petition, and states that in the New Year 

 ceremony the life god, whose vitality is supposed to wane during the 

 year, presents a petition for restoration, and in order to give value 

 to his petition a portion of the rite is marked by the burning of to- 

 bacco for this purpose. The solemn ceremonies also connected with 

 the calumet may involve this idea. The calumet is passed around 

 in order of official seniority during the council, and he who holds it 

 aflirms his speech by blowing a cloud of smoke. Similarl}^, in the 

 ratification of peace the pipe was an important adjunct, without 

 which the terms would not be binding. It is probable here, as in 

 many other rites connected with the use of incense, that the smoke 

 is designed to open communication with the spirit world by attract- 

 ing the attention of the intangible beings. Mr. Hewitt says, how- 

 ever, that it is the tobacco rather than the odor that is offered as a 

 sacrifice to the deities; that is, the soul, or the reality, of the tobacco 

 is what reaches the gods. By means of separate acts there is a two- 

 fold use of tobacco in a peace or other council, the one to compose 

 the minds of the councilors and the other to invoke the good will 

 of the gods to whom it is offered in sacrifices. 



Incense was probably at first the smoke of wood or of leaves, then 

 later selected, compounded of several materials, and made sacred by 

 rites. It was finally sought all over the world, and a commerce in 

 "frankincense and mjTrh" was one of the chief agencies in bringing 

 a knowledge of the people of the Tropics to those of northern zones. 



The incense from South America, according to Humboldt, was 

 from the Idea gujanensis and Idea tacamahaca. That used most 

 commonly in Mexico and Central America was the gum of the Pro- 

 tium heptaphyllum, called copal by the Spanish. This tree is also near 

 Bursera, from which genus the most precious incense gums of the 

 world are derived. "The Mexicans and all the inhabitants of New 

 Spain made use (which they pursue yet somewhat to-day) in their 

 offerings of that incense of copal, a kind of white gum which they 

 call copalli, for incensing their gods. They had not recourse to our 

 true incense, because it was not found in their country. It was copal 

 that the satraps used in the temple and everyone in the private 

 houses, as we have said above." Tozzer states that the sap of the- 

 rubber tree was used by the Lacandones. The wood and leaves and 



