418 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1889. 



There is no question that this inscription is attributable to the na- 

 tive tribes who formerly occupied St. Vincent. These were the 

 Caribs who had populated it from the adjacent mainland, distant 

 about seventy miles. When first discovered, St. Vinceot was the 

 most densely peopled of all the Caribbee Islands and exclusively by 

 this tribe. 



One of the early writers says that they had many villages in its 

 valleys and enjoyed entire repose from their enemies ; hence it was 

 selected as a rendezvous for the tribal bands from other islands and 

 the mainland when organizing expeditions against their enemies, 

 the Arawacks. 1 We may credibly affirm therefore that this inscrip- 

 tion is a product of Carib art. 



It is well known that on the adjacent portions of South America 

 many petroglyphs have been observed, some of remarkable size and 

 designs. They have been copied by Humboldt, Schomburgh, Wal- 

 lace, Im Thurn and others. The last mentioned who is also the most 

 recent observer, has made the important discovery that they are 

 divided into two classes, differing widely in design and technical 

 procedure. The one he calls the "deep" the other the •'shallow" 

 petroglyphs. The " deep" are from I to i an inch in depth; the 

 " shallow" are mere surface scratches ; the former have been incised 

 with the edge of a sharpened stone ; the latter rubbed in by friction 

 with a stone and moist sand. The figures represented differ, and the 

 two varieties never occur together, nor even near each other. The 

 shallow variety is seen on the Corentyn river and its tributaries in 

 the extreme east of British Guiana ; the deep occur on the streams 

 west of that region. - 



The present Indians know nothing of the origin, age or meaning 

 of these monuments, and do not pretend to imitate them. The posi- 

 tion they occupy is generally, but not always, close to some body of 

 water. Not unfrequently they are upon almost inaccessible rock- 

 surfaces, and could have been executed only with enormous toil and 

 risk. This fact, and the well-known aversion of the natives to labor 

 of any kind, are sufficient to invalidate the theory of Dr. Richard 

 Andree that these figures were merely the product of idle hours, 

 without meaning and without object. 3 



1 De Rochefort, Histoire des lies Antiles de l'Amerique, pp. 24, 25. 



2 Among the Indians in Guiana. By Everard F. Im Thurn, p. 394. 

 3 Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, s. 258. 



