204 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of Venezuela. ^2 ji would be expected that in tropical America resin 

 torches like those of the East Indies would occur. Humbolt also 

 writes : 



"Long before chemists had recognized small portions of wax in 

 the pollen of flowers, the varnish of leaves, and the whitish dust of our 

 plums and grapes, the inhabitants of the Andes of Quindin made 

 tapers with the thick layers of wax that covers the trunk of a palm 

 tree {Coroxylon andicola) ." ^^ 



In the Penny Magazine for May, 1832, (p. 212), is a reference to 

 torches of caoutchouc. It is said that the natives make torches of 

 caoutchouc and that one of these 13^ inches in diameter and 2 feet 

 long will burn 12 hours. Caoutchouc was used in sacrifice as incense 

 to certain gods in Mexico. 



EUROPE 



Most interesting survivals of an age when torches were important 

 are found in Europe. They present forms of the torch of the high- 

 est art and of striking simplicity, reflecting the cultural and uncul- 

 tured periods. An example of the minimum light use is observed in 

 Lapland : 



"They were all much astonished at the sight of lucifer matches. 

 As for them, they had no candles, but when they wanted a bright 

 light they held up a piece of burning wood taken out of the fire."^* 



The Shetland Islanders use the excessively oily body of the stormy 

 petrel, Procellaria pelagica, as a torch.'^ As a wick is placed in the 

 mouth of the bird touching the reservoir of oil, relationship with 

 the lamp is observed, but the primitiveness of the idea would allow 

 the device to stand at the beginning of either the torch or lamp. 

 At the beginning of every invention there are generally crude exper- 

 imental or makeshift devices difficult to classify. 



"In the Isere, in the Var, in the two Alps, Upper and Lower, the 

 peasants have not even trucks, but carry manure on their backs; 

 they have no candles and burn resinous logs and pieces of rope steeped 

 in pitch. It is the same through all the high parts of Dauphine."** 



This is a good example of a rude culture area existing in the 

 bosom of a high culture, and Hugo is right in advancing as the 

 causes isolation, mountainous surroundings, poverty of environment 

 and of people. Civilization or enlightenment is as the fringe of fine 

 lines the map makers surround the coasts in proportion to the whole 

 continents of ignorance. 



Many of these ancient customs have just been superseded in parts 

 of Europe by modern methods, but still remain as an obscure element 



"Humboldt. Travels. Bohn edition, vol. 1, p. 257. 



•'Idem, vol. 2, p. 50. 



'•Milford's Norway and her Laplanders, London, 1842. 



««Ibis, January, 1891, p. 2. 



"Victor Hugo. Les Miserables, p. 18. 



