_op. cit._ p. 72). "Both rites, the
pouring of libations and the burning of incense, are performed for the
same purpose--to revivify the body [or the statue] of god and man by
restoring to it its lost moisture" (p. 75).

In attempting to reconstitute the circumstances which led to the
invention of incense-burning as a ritual act, the nature of the problem
to be solved must be recalled. Among the most obtrusive evidences of
death were the coldness of the skin, the lack of perspiration and of the
odour of the living. It is important to realize what the phrase "odour
of the living" would convey to the Proto-Egyptian. From the earliest
Predynastic times in Egypt it had been the custom to make extensive use
of resinous material as an essential ingredient (what a pharmacist would
call the adhesive "vehicle") of cosmetics. One of the results of this
practice in a hot climate must have been the association of a strong
aroma of resin or balsam with a living person.[60] Whether or not it was
the practice to burn incense to give pleasure to the living is not
known. The fact that such a procedure was customary among their
successors may mean that it was really archaic; or on the other hand the
possibility must not be overlooked that it may be merely the later
vulgarization of a practice which originally was devised for purely
ritual purposes. The burning of incense before a corpse or statue was
intended to convey to it the warmth, the sweat, and the odour of life.

When the belief became well established that the burning of incense was
potent as an animating force, and especially a giver of life to the
dead, it naturally came to be regarded as a divine substance in the
sense that it had the power of resurrection. 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. They were no longer merely the source
of the life-giving incense, but were themselves animated by the deity
whose drops of sweat were the means of conveying life to the mummy.

The reason why the deity which dwelt in these trees was usually
identified with the Mother-Goddess will become clear in the course of
the subsequent discussion (p. 38). It is probable that this was due
mainly to the geographical circumstance that the chief source of incense
was Southern Arabia, which was also the home of the primitive goddesses
of fertilit