1889.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 419 



Some, on the other hand, have attributed to them a profound 

 symbolic meaning, or supposed they possessed far-reaching histori- 

 cal significance. This is an error quite as much too far on the other 

 side. 



I am convinced that in regard to those found in Guiana and the 

 Carib district the theory of Professor Von Martins is correct. 

 He believed that they were intended as conjurations for luck in 

 fishing and hunting, propitiatory to the spirits of the fish and ani- 

 mals sought for, objurgatory towards envious or malicious super- 

 natural powers. 1 



There is a passage in De Rochefort's History of the Antilles con- 

 firmatory of Von Martins' view, though he omits to quote it. This 

 early French historian speaking of the island Caribs says : " To 

 turn aside the anger of the demons whom they dread, they paint 

 their hideous figures on the most prominent parts of their canoes." 2 

 He does not specifically say that they also engraved them upon the 

 plain surfaces of the rocks, but there can be no doubt they did, as 

 the Carib word temehri which is applied by them to rock inscrip- 

 tions means "to paint'" or "a painting." 3 



We may safely decide therefore that the photograph before us 

 represents one of the Carib demons or deities, and that its figure 

 was cut in the rock as a propitiatory act. 



It may partake of temerity to proceed further, and undertake to 

 identify a particular deity ; but I am tempted to do so. The main 

 figure of the glyph clearly represents a human form with arms ex- 

 tended over and laid upon the abdomen, but with no legs visible. 

 The abdomen is disproportionately large, as if greatly distended. 

 The suggestion is at once at hand that the figure is that of a woman in 

 parturition. Immediately above the head of the figure is the rude 

 representation of a human face, and another smaller one is to the 

 left of the figure, both without limbs. 



Turning now to the mythology of the Carib we learn that 

 their principal beneficent deity was the Earth. They spoke of it as 

 a female, as the. good mother, from whom proceeded their food and 

 other necessaries of life, and to her they paid their principal hom- 

 age. They also regarded the sun and moon as animate beings, and 



1 Ethnographic und Sprachen-Kunde Amerikas, Band I, S. 571, 2 qq. 



2 Hi^toire des lies Antilles, p. 479. 



3 Im Thurn, ubi supra, p. 394. 



