202 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the ground, and set them on fire when a good light was needed. In 

 America, also, the torch had an extended employment in fishing. 

 In the birch area rolls of bark were the common torch, and in other 

 locahties material best suited for the purpose was used. On the 

 settlement of America the basket torch was introduced. The basket 

 torch or fire basket was used by New England whalers and fishermen, 

 and in it was burned cut-up dogfish like pine knots. Whalers also 

 burned the refuse left after drying out whale blubber. The iron 

 basket was hung over the ship's side for light while cutting-in whales 

 ^t night. 



About 1840, in Fairfax and Prince William County, Virginia, a 

 house light of a primitive character was used in out-of-the-way places. 

 It consisted of a piece of sheet iron bent up at the edges and stuck 

 in the side of the huge old stone chimney of the period, and on this 

 pieces of pine wood were laid and burnt (pi. 33. fig. 14). The chil- 

 dren kept up the fire while the women sewed, spun, quilted, or knit. 



MEXICO 



In Mexico, among the tribes where the arts of life were advanced 

 torches of a superior quality were made, while among the less advanced 

 simpHcity was the rule. "The Lacandons used a fir stick in the house 

 for light.^2 In Sonora the Indians used the bark of the Jacquinia 

 pungens Gray to make torches. The folk name of the plant is San 

 Juanico (pi. 33. fig. 13). An excellent torch was made from the bark 

 of the ocotillo, Fouquiera splendens. Among the Mohave, who are 

 cremationists, when a man dies far away from camp, a small figure 

 of him is made of ocotillo and burnt for him by substitution.^' 



The codices give pictorial evidence of the manufactured torch. The 

 representation of the tapir god in the Codex Cortesianus bears in its 

 hand a skillfully constructed torch. Some detail as to the manner of 

 making torches is given by J. Sanchez: 



"The Mexicans split up the wood of the Pinus teocote Scheid into 

 thin slivers, fixed them at one end and hghted them at the other for 

 illuminating their houses."®* 



John Fiske says that resinous torches were used for lights in houses 

 in the city of Mexico, and Bancroft writes that besides torches fire- 

 flies were sometimes so used. ®^ 



For illuminating their pathway along the subterraneous caverns 

 of northwestern Yucatan to the sources of water supply, the modern 

 Indian women make torches of cactus stems and bundles of grass.®" 



Sahagun records: "The young soldiers already experienced in war, 

 who they called 'tlelpochtequinaque,' carried the bundles of inflam- 



"H. H. Bancroft. Wild Tribes, vol. 1, 1874, p. 697. 



5' Information by Dr. Edward Palmer. 



'* Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, vol. 3, 1911. 



"John Fiske. The Discovery of America, vol. 2, 1892, p. 267. H. H. Bancroft, vol. 2, p. 573. 



"H- O. Mercer. The Hill Caves of Yucatan, Philadelphia, 1896, flg. 35. 



