Incense "joss" is derived from the Latin "deus" (god) via the Portuguese "deos" through the Javanese "dejos", through Chinese pidgin English. The raw materials are powdered and then mixed together with a binder to form a paste, which, for direct burning incense, is then cut and dried into pellets. Incense of the Athonite Orthodox Christian tradition is made by powdering frankincense or fir resin, mixing it with essential oils. Floral fragrances are the most common, but citrus such as lemon is not uncommon. The incense mixture is then rolled out into a slab approximately 1 cm thick and left until the
Chinese gods and immortals "god" and "deity", Latin "genius" (meaning a generative principle, "spirit") and "deus" or "divus"; "dì", sometimes translated as "thearch", implies a manifested or incarnate "godly" power. It is etymologically and figuratively analogous to the concept of "di" as the base of a fruit, which falls and produces other fruits. This analogy is attested in the "Shuowen Jiezi" explaining "deity" as "what faces the base of a melon fruit". The latter term 仙 "xiān" unambiguously means a man who has reached immortality, similarly to the Western idea of "hero". Chinese traditional theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the classic