INCENSE 



2937 



INCOME TAX 



The Incas were expert farmers who irrigated 

 their lands, erected large granaries and built 

 good roads to all parts of their empire. Their 

 windowless houses were built of sun-burned 

 bricks or granite, and were about eight feet 

 high. They owned great quantities of gold, 

 which was used lavishly in the decoration of 

 their palaces and temples. The capital of the 

 empire was at Cuzco, but Atahualpa moved it 

 to Quito, just before the arrival of Pizarro, 

 to secure himself against attack by his brother, 

 who started a rebellion (see ATAHUALPA). 



The Incas were conquered by the Spaniards 

 in 1523, but they were not exterminated, and 

 their descendants are now civilized, respected 

 inhabitants of Peru. The largest and most 

 important Inca ruin discovered in South 

 America since the days of the Spanish conquest 

 is Machu Picchu, which was found in 1911 by 

 Peruvian expeditions. The ruins of buildings 

 made of blocks of granite beautifully fitted to- 

 gether represent the most refined style of Inca 

 architecture. Explorers believe that Machu 

 Picchu may prove to be Tampu Tocco, the 

 mythical place from which the Incas came when 

 they started out to found Cuzco and to build 

 the foundation of their great empire. 



Consult Henty's Treasure of the Incas. 



INCENSE, in' sens, a substance made from 

 resins, sweet-smelling gums, balsams and simi- 

 lar ingredients, which, when burned, gives off 

 a delicate fragrance. Among the ancient Jews 

 the burning of incense was considered an act 

 of worship, and as early as 340 (and proba- 

 bly long before) it was a feature of Roman 

 Catholic communion service. Even now it is 

 used in Catholic burial rites and at high mass, 

 as well as in the communion services of some 

 Episcopal churches. The powdered incense, 

 poured into a metal vessel, the censer, con- 

 taining burning charcoal, is melted by the 

 heat, and it emits a sweet perfume and a 

 bluish, vapory haze. The censer, suspended 

 by chains, is swung, either by the priest or by 

 an attendant, about the altar or sanctuary. 

 There are many references to incense in the 

 Bible. In very early times the peoples of the 

 Far East burned it when worshiping their gods, 

 a custom which is still common among Bud- 

 dhists. 



INCLINED, inklyned', PLANE. A mer- 

 chant wished to load a barrel of. molasses 

 weighing 200 pounds into a wagon three and 

 one-half feet high. He took a plank fourteen 

 feet long, placed one end on the wagon and 

 the other end on the ground, then rolled the 



W 



barrel up the plank. By this device he was 

 able to load the barrel by lifting only fifty 

 pounds! The plank was what in physics is 

 called an inclined plane, and its practical use 

 is for lifting heavy weights. The load to be 

 lifted is called the 

 weight; the force 

 required to move 

 it is the power. 

 The law of the 

 inclined plane is: 

 The power multi- 

 plied by the INCLINED PLANE 



length of the plane equals the weight multiplied 

 by the height. In the example given above, 

 14X56=200X3%. In the illustrations I repre- 

 sents the length, h the height, w the weight and 



PRACTICAL APPLICATION 



p the power. A carriage road winding up a hill- 

 side and a section of a railroad constructed on 

 a grade are good examples of an inclined plane 

 on a large scale. 



IN 'COME TAX, a tax levied by a national 

 government on incomes. It may be collected 

 from individuals or firms actually receiving the 

 income, or it may be deducted "at the source," 

 that is, the persons or firms who provide the 

 income may deduct the tax from salary, inter- 

 est, rent or other items they pay out. Such a 

 tax may be uniform, in which case it is a fixed 

 percentage on all incomes, or it may be gradu- 

 ated, that is, made relatively greater for large 

 incomes than for small ones. 



In nearly all countries which employ the 

 income tax it is customary to exempt from 

 taxation all incomes below a certain amount. 

 The theory of such exemptions is that a certain 

 income is necessary to existence or to the 

 maintenance of a standard of living; in either 

 case this minimum should be exempt because 

 a tax would mean that the state would have to 

 repay the tax in the form of relief for the 

 poor or else would lower the standard of liv- 

 ing. Both of these results would be unde- 

 sirable. Some economists believe, moreover, 

 that earned income should be treated differ- 

 ently from income derived from property or 

 inherited. If the income is derived from in- 



