copal
- n a brittle aromatic resin used in varnishes
- As she describes Mexico, her prose catches fire with the smoke of copal, the "shriveled scorpions and fried grasshoppers" the Zapotec women lay out on the sidewalks, the trucks .
- They moan and chant, burn incense of copal and rubber at the altars of jungle-grown Mayan cities 1,500 years old.
- The altar is lit by copal, the resin that is supposed to guide lost souls after dark.