FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTUKE 233 



is a central tube lamp like those formerly used in Europe. A form 

 of this was a hanging lamp with shade. Chinese chandeliers are 

 often elaborately incrusted with gilt and kingfisher's feathers. 



KOREA 



In northern Korea a tiny pottery lamp hke a saucer with a rough 

 wick dipped in the oil is common." The lamp as usually installed 

 in Korea consists of a rather deep saucer of pottery containing sesa- 

 mum oil and a cotton wick resting on a stand. The stand has a base 

 and upright, the latter ratcheted. Slipping over the upright is an 

 arm with a lamp rest, and a similar arm below acts as a drip-catcher 

 support. By means of the ratchet the lamp can be tipped or raised 

 or lowered. The specimen described is of wood, but the device is 

 sometimes made of brass. It is called eh Tciung, lamp stand. 



JAPAN 



Japanese lighting was complete in all its details and was adequate 

 for every phase of social life. In no country during the noninventive 

 period was there such a varied, artistically satisfying utilization of 

 light. Lamps for burning oil, however, were of the simplest form, a 

 mere shallow dish undifferentiated for the installation of a wick. 



The Aino aborigines of Japan possessed a lamp that has every aspect 

 of primitiveness. The reservoir of their lamp is a pecten or clam 

 shell set in the grasp of a three-pronged stick left with the bark on. 

 The wick is twisted bark or pith of rush. Seal oil and fish oil are 

 burnt in this lamp, which is called nochi heck. In the absence of a 

 forked stick the end of a stick was split in four parts and the ends 

 separated by wedges. The Aino also had a pothook with ratchet 

 rack after western fashion. 



EAST INDIES 



Lamps occur sporadically in the East Indies, and so far as may be 

 surmised are not of indigenous cultm*e. In Java spoon-shaped lamps 

 of cast brass, with stand and lamp in one or separate, are evidently 

 of Indian origin. In Nias Modigliani found a rude pottery lamp 

 shaped Uke a teapot and a similar specimen in brass. These he thinks 

 were imported.^^ A curious lamp was found at Telok Dalam by Dr. 

 W. L. Abbott. It is crusie shape, of wood, and the hook support is 

 mortised through the back of the lamp. 



PHILIPPINES 



In the southern island of Mindanao brass saucer lamps, usually 

 with standard, are found among the Moros. These lamps seem to 

 refer to India. One of these lamps is a thi*ee-spout saucer mounted 

 on a standard. Each spout has a rib across it following the outline 



" Carles. Life in Corea, New York, 18S8, p. 218. " Un Viaggio a Nias, Milan, 1890, p. 222. 



