INCENSE. The Encycl. Bibl. defines incense as "the perfume arising from aromatic substances during com bustion, and the substances themselves which are burned to produce the perfume." The use of incense in ritual and religious ceremonies has been widespread. It is referred to frequently in the Old Testament, where in cense appears either as the concomitant of certain obla tions or as an offering by itself; and in later Jewish literature we read often of the perfuming of garments by fragrant smoke, and the use of fumigatories after meals. In Psalm cxli., 2, Rev. viii. 3, v. 8, the sweet smoke which rises heavenwards seems to have become a symbol or vehicle of prayer, but this is a comparatively late con ception. An earlier conception is represented by such passages as Gen. viii. 21 where Jehovah is said to have smelled with pleasure the odour of a burnt offering (cp. Lev. xxvi. 31). Another conception, by no means primi tive, Is that incense or fumigation with the smoke of incense is a powerful cleansing medium. Incense was much used in the religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians. In Sabaean inscriptions, again, mention is made of various substances used for incense. In ancient Egypt. as Cheyne says (E.Bi.), the offering of incense by a ki-ng is a frequent subject on the monuments, and great quantities of incense were consumed in the temples. It was an important feature in Roman religion. W. Warde Fowler states that when the Magna Mater of Pessinus was brought to Rome, " all Rome poured out to meet her, and burned incense at their doors as she passed by. He notes also that among the things which the Christian Church inherited from the Roman religion as symbolic elements in worship was the use of holy water and of incense. In Greek religion, according to Mac Culloch (Hastings' " incense as such was not used before the eighth century B.C., and is first men tioned in Euripides"; but later it came to be used in large quantities. In the Roman Catholic Church incense is used " before the introit, at the gospel, offertory and elevation in High Mass, at the Magnificat in vespers, at funerals, etc." (Cath. Diet.); but it is said to be certain from Tertullian and many other early writers down to St. Augustine that the religious use of incense was un known in the primitive Church. In the Church of Eng
land it does not seem to have been used in divine service in the period after the Reformation, but its use was revived by the ritualistic party in the 19th century. In recent years the study of the lower religions has revealed the fact that the use of incense is more world-wide than it was formerly supposed to be. It was much used, for instance, in the religion of ancient Mexico. To return now to the problem of the origin of the use of incense. Robertson Smith (R.S.) suggested that the religious value of incense was originally independent of animal sacrifice, since, as a matter of fact, frankincense was the gum of a very holy species of tree, which was collected with re ligious precautions. " Whether, therefore, the sacred odour was used in unguents or burned like an altar sacrifice, it appears to have owed its virtue, like the gum of the samora tree, to the idea that it was the blood of an animate and divine plant." More recently much new light has been thrown on the subject, at any rate as far as ancient Egypt is concerned, by Dr. A. M. Blackman and Professor G. Elliot Smith. According to the former, the burning of incense before a corpse or statue in Egypt was part of the procedure considered necessary to give it a new life: it was intended primarily to convey to it the warmth, the sweat, and the odour of life. Then, according to Elliot Smith, from being an animating force, incense came to be regarded as a divine substance.
" as the grains of incense consisted of the exudation of trees, or, as the ancient texts express it, ` their sweat,' the divine power of animation in course of time became transferred to the trees." This, in fact, is probably the origin of the sacredness of trees; " it was acquired from the incense and the aromatic woods which were credited with the power of animating the dead." The custom of burning incense, originally a ritual act for animating the funerary statue, developed ultimately into an act of homage to the deity. See A. M. Black man, " The Significance of Incense, etc.," in the Zcit schrift fiir Agyptische Sprache and Altcrtumskunde, Bd. 50, 1912; G. Elliot Smith, Dr., 1919.