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And now incense was burned in a bass thurible. The old priest held up his two hands for silence, and through a long pregnant time of the most perfect stillness the thread of gray incense smoke rose straight and unwavering before the god, ...
-- Island Ch. 10, Pg. 200
A thurible is a metal censer, so brass would make more sense than bass. Is this a typo that was never caught?
The (1976) second reprint on archive.org refers to it as a brass thurible. Given that the word brass is notched, it's possible that your version was OCR'd from the archive version.
