NATIVE PROVINCES 19 



Rainfall. — Rainfall is very heavy in Samana Peninsula, but is 

 more evenly distributed throughout the year than in some other 

 parts of the island. It is raining at some point in Samana Bay or 

 the surrounding shore practically all the time. Yet, at Samana, 

 during the months of February, March, and April, 1928, a prolonged 

 period of drought caused a local water famine. Dependence for 

 drinldng water is placed on rain water which is stored in cisterns 

 above ground. Rainfall is more abundant at Sanchez, at the head 

 of the bay, than at Samana, farther to the east. Sabana de la Mar, 

 on the south shore of the bay, also has a heavy rainfall. Vegetation, 

 in consequence of the heavy rainfall and fertile soil, is dense through- 

 out Samana Peninsula. Soil in the mountains is thin and stony, 

 but the valleys have fertile alluvial soil. Precipitation records at 

 Sanchez shows an average fall of rain of over 6 inches per month, 

 except for the period from December to April. For portions of the 

 interior and western sections of the island there appear to be two 

 periods of heavy rainfall — one in November, the other in spring. 

 The western portion of the great central plain is much drier. Thorn 

 forests begin west of the interior town of Santiago de los Cabelleros. 



NATIVE PROVINCES 



The Arawak Indians of Haiti and Santo Domingo were grouped in 

 Provinces having more or less well-defined natural boundaries. The 

 political and religious head of each of the principal Provinces, of 

 which there wer« five, was known as a cacique. Caciques were the 

 leaders and advisers of their people and appear to have combined 

 the native offices of chief and medicine man. Their powers were 

 extensive, as they ordered the routine of daily life and work. They 

 assigned to individuals such widely separated duties as communal 

 hunting, fishing, and the tillage of the soil; they also presided at 

 religious ceremonies. Peter Martyr observed that " every king hath 

 his subjects divided to sundry affairs, as some to fishing, other to 

 hunting, and other some to husbandrie." Columbus writes that " I 

 could not clearly understand whether this people possess any private 

 property, for I observe that one man had the charge of distributing 

 various things to the rest, but especially meat, provisions, and the 

 like." No regular tribute was demanded by the caciques from their 

 subjects, but the best of the food and the finest of the agricultural 

 products were reserved for them. According to Oviedo, one species 

 of the smaller rodents of the genus Placpiodontia was reserved for the 

 exclusive use of the cacique and his family. Fewkes says that " as 

 a rule each village seems to have had a chieftain or patriarchal head 

 of the clans composing it, whose house was larger than the other 

 houses and contained the idols belonging to the families. The cacique, 



