'/'///•; .1^7-: OF MAMM.U.S (■).") 



" the twchr animals"; the iiiiicr i-iii<i- holds tlu' iiiyslic trij>;raiii or " pa-cjiia " 

 attributed to Fii-lii, the first of the three ancient s()verei<i,ns, and the center 

 is marked hy a tortoise-shaped i)ert"orated Unol) tluon^h which the cord 

 handle passes. 



Perhaps the hill-censers an- the most uniciue example of tlii' Han period. 



The Chinese nami' for these translates " l)razier or stove of the \ast moun- 

 tain" from the fact that the coNcr has the shape of a hill emerging from 

 waxes. Openings in the coxcr permitted the escajx' of the incense. This 

 moimtain design is symi)olic of the thought of the period an<l probably 

 refers to the "isles of the l»lest," the al)ode of the innnortals. This hill- 

 censer of the Han periixl w as the first type of censer made, the ancients not 

 burning incense and so having no incense stoves. The fa\'orite form of 

 censers now foinid in Buddhistic, Taoistic and Confucian temples is from a 

 bronze caldron originally devoted only to meat ofi'erings. Cen.sers made in 

 the Ming period are numerous and of great beauty and the forms of all 

 Chinese ritual vessels appear not only in bronze, but also in pottery, jade, 

 glass and porcelain. To-day the early history of Chinese porcelains is 

 still imwritten but the student will find in the Museum's Chinese Hall 

 many early period examples of bronze and pottery which inspired the forms 

 of the finest porcelains. 



Dr. Laufer says: "The fact of a type of vessel sanctified foi' nn'llenniums 

 within the strict boundaries of rigid religious observances suddenly changing 

 its object under outside currents of influence, but still retaining the shape, 

 is of paramount ethnological value since it proves a higher degree of tenacity 

 of forms and greater changeability of the ideas cmlxxlicd in them: the 

 forms survive while the ideas vanish or alter." 



"THE AGE OF MAMMALS" 



]{)/ ]\'illi(ini K. (ircf/orii 



THOSE whose interests are wholly limited lo c\-cry-day affairs will 

 doubtless not find time for more than a hasty glance at the very 

 numerous maps, diagrams and i)ictures in Profes.sor Osborn's 

 recently published book, " The Age of Mammals." ' But those who possess 

 in some measure the "scientific imagination" will find here a new world 

 and a new point of view, from which Man may l)e seen in his ])ropcr 

 historical setting. 



'The Age of Mammals in Kiiropc, .\sia and North Arni'i'ica. H\ llcnry l-'airficUl 

 Osborn. Svo.. pp. XVFI -|- (■>:{;">. tljis, 220. The \r:icniill;in ('uiiip:my, KlKl 



