FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 255 



In Siam, as an expiation, a model of a Chinese junk, gaily painted 

 and with wax tapers, fruit, and flowers, is launched at dusk with 

 tapers lighted. The junk has clay figures of men as a crew and is 

 sent out during cholera epidemics."^ 



The Malay women of Panjwan Sokmaviro, Borneo, prepare a lamp 

 made of half a coconut shell filled with oil, with a cane wick, and 

 float it down the river as a charm to keep their husbands safe while 

 gutta collecting.^^ 



PERPETUAL LIGHTS 



The perpetuation of fire as a fetish serving by its continuance to 

 keep unbroken the chain of benefits has been mentioned. The same 

 phenomenon is observed in regard to Ught. Perpetual lights are 

 sometimes mere folk observances, but are generally connected with 

 some organization kept up over long periods. " Ever-burning lamps," 

 referred to by Shakespeare, were maintained in English chapels, and 

 the one in Townley Chapel is said to have been kept aUght for 

 1,000 years. 



The Jewish ner tamid, perpetual light, hung in front of the ark 

 containing the scrolls of the law in the sjnagogue. It is thought 

 that this was a floating wick lamp. Altar lamps of the Catholic 

 church are of this class, and the idea of perpetuation is inherent in 

 the function of this lamp. 



Connected with the perpetual lamp is a great body of myth and 

 pseudo science referring to lamps which would burn perpetually 

 without replenishment. Earnest search was made by alchemists 

 and more modern chemists for such a desircable illuminant. Stories 

 were invented as to the finding of such lamps in tombs, attributing 

 to the ancients the command of this mysterious lamp fuel. In one 

 of the oldest historical works of China, by Ssu-ma-chien, the name 

 is Ssu-chi, mention is made of candles which were made of the " man 

 fish" and put in the tomb of She Huang-ti of the Chin d}'nasty, about 

 200 A. D., in order that the candles might bm-n forever.*^ 



MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF LIGHT 



Mytlis of this content are rare compared with the number ot myths 

 of the origin of fire. 



Among the Mohave Indians of Arizona the culture hero, Mas- 

 tambo, made light."^ 



One of the fundamental elements of the mythology of the Mewan 

 Indians of California is the existence at a great distance of a primor- 

 dial heat and light-giving substance indifferently called fire, sun, or 



M Siam and Laos, Presbyterian Board, Philadelphia, 1884, p. 243. 



•' Carl Bock. Head Hunters of Borneo, London, 1881, p. 48. 



M Information by W. W. Rockhill. 



M A. L. Kroeber. The Mojave Indians, Amer. Anthrop., new ser., vol. 4, 1902, p. 283. 



