138 BULLETIN U{>, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and the resins of the pine trees in Mexico had important cult uses. 

 Pine needles are used as incense by the Hopi, as they are by the 

 Tibetans. 



In the descriptions of the home life of the Mexicans transmitted 

 by the early chroniclers it is stated that vases filled with smoulder- 

 ing incense diffused their perfumes through the rooms, and numerous 

 mentions of such usage give the impression that it was customary 

 to burn odorous substances as a matter of refinement and for personal 

 pleasure, just as the use of tobacco became secularized. 



NEW FIRE 



One of the most interesting survivals of the crude philosophy which 

 apparently developed anciently concerning fire is the new fire. This 

 philosophy was based on the observed birth, growth, and decay of 

 animate and inanimate things. It may be called the pre-evolution- 

 ary theory. The Mexicans transferred this idea to the life of the 

 gods, who must be assiduously nourished, and to the sun as chief of 

 the gods. Out of this idea grew all origin ideas, the golden age and 

 the fall of man. It was conceived that fire grew old and ineffective 

 for the preservation of the well-being of the family, and, by extension 

 to the social group or tribe. The family fire was always regarded 

 with superstitious reverence which had survived from times of the 

 highest antiquity, a fragment of the attitude of man toward the prim- 

 itive fire as an awe-inspiring phenomenon. Based on the philoso- 

 phy of the spiritual decay of fire, a widespread custom sprang up 

 which required the renewal at stated intervals, usually one year, but 

 sometimes longer, as among the Mexicans. 



The kindling of new fire is, or recently was, almost universally 

 practiced by the tribes of men. So widely spread is the conception 

 of new fire that one may surmise its inheritance from a common cen- 

 ter before one of the great migrations. The idea is antagonistic to 

 to that of perpetual fire, in fact it causes the total loss of fire, a con- 

 tingency jealously guarded against before the invention of methods 

 of making fire artificially. In this light we may assert that the new 

 fire was posterior to the invention mentioned. 



Some notes, admittedly few of the great number, show the new 

 fire practice in the major divisions of the world. 



"Formerly when an epidemic prevailed among the Iroquois despite 

 the efforts to stay it, it was customary for the principal shaman to 

 order the fires in every cabin to be extinguished and the ashes and 

 cinders to be carefuU}^ removed ; for it was believed that the pesti- 

 lence was sent as a punishment for neglecting to rekindle 'new fire,' 

 or because of the manner in which the fire then in use had been kin- 

 dled. So, after all the fires were out, two suitable logs of slippery 

 elm ( TJlmvs fulva) were provided for the new fire. One of the logs 



