Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1892 — Time Incense. [ARTICLE]

Time Incense.

There has recently been added to the collection of folk objects in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania a package of incense, the use of which survives in the rural districts of China for the purpose of measuring time. It is called kong keung or “clock incense;” the word kong being our familiar English word “gong, ” which we got from the Chinese. It is used by the watchman. whose watch at night is divided into five parts. Five of these sticks are burned during the night, and they are shortened by breaking them off in accordance with the seasons. This incense was purchased at a Chinese shop in Philadelphia, and is another curious instance of primitive survivals among these interesting people.