38 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tribes in South America resemble those of the Guetar. For geographical rea- 

 sons direct contact between these areas was impossible and those features 

 which are common to both were doubtless passed along by the natives of 

 Colombia. 



i^ ***** * 



From the foregoing * * * no statement as to dating can be made at 

 present, which is other than a more or less well-founded guess. We have 

 demonstrated the artistic and technical afHliations of the ceramic remains. 

 The chronological ordering of this array we leave to be determined by the 

 ultimate and conclusive proof of excavation. 



Weapons. — The Ciguayans of Samana were true Arawak in their 

 type of arrows. This applies particularly to the trident and war 

 arrows. Their bows, however, were like those of the Carib, in that 

 they were very long and fashioned from the heart wood. Their 

 clubs were like those from the Guiana coast, having a truncated, 

 bulbous end section, the entire weapon being smoothly polished. 

 Their method of fighting with ropes resembles that of the Velez 

 of Colombia, although the custom of binding prisoners with ropes 

 apparently was general throughout the entire island. Ciguayans 

 used to paint themselves with the red color extracted from the Bixa. 

 This was a war paint commonly used. The black paint with which 

 they also smeared themselves in preparation for battle was derived 

 from a pearlike fruit, the Genipa, which they are said to have culti- 

 vated in their gardens. The throwing stick and arrows of gyTmerium 

 are also typical of the South American Arawak. 



The variety of weapons employed by the primitive Ciguayan at 

 the time of the discovery is worthy of note. Wlien Columbus landed 

 at Guanahani, in the Lucayan Islands, he found the inhabitants 

 armed with wooden spears, the tips of which were hardened in the 

 fire or tipped with the spine or tooth of a fish. The same type of 

 weapon is said to have been in use also by the Ciguayans. There 

 were, however, other weapons. The Ciguayans also were found 

 using the same form of fire-hardened javelin or spear. The bows 

 " of hardwood almost as big of those of England and France " were 

 noted both in northeast and in southeast Santo Domingo. Similar 

 long bows also were in use by the Porto Rican natives of the interior. 

 Slender reed arrows were fashioned from the gynaerium^ having 

 a hardwood foreshaft tipped with a fishbone or bone splinter. There 

 appears to have been no general use of poison by the natives of Haiti, 

 although the tribes of northeastern and of southeastern Haiti dipped 

 their arrows in a vegetable poison. In this custom they appear to 

 have followed their neighbors, the Caribs, rather than the Arawak 

 of the Greater Antilles generally. No bows and arrows were found 

 by the Spaniards in Cuba, Jamaica, or in the Bahamas. 



In Haiti darts with reed shafts and fire-hardened wooden points 

 were hurled with spear throwers. It is assumed that this weapon 



