MATERIAL CULTUEE OF THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 39 



was known and used by the Ciguayans, although no specific mention 

 of the fact is to be found in the literature. The heavy sword-club 

 " macana " of the Taino or " butu " of the Carib was much in evi- 

 dence among the Ciguayans of Samana. This weapon was of heavy 

 hardwood, flat, and blunted at the edges. It was more than an inch 

 in thickness throughout. The Porto Rican " macana " was as long 

 as a man's stature ; it was provided with a bulbous hiltlike protective 

 device, which in the Carib varieties was sometimes inlaid with bone 

 or wood of another color. No defensive armor or shields were used 

 north of Paria, on the mainland of the Venezuelan coast. Columbus 

 saw a native canoe off the coast of the island of Trinidad, the crew 

 of which was armed with bows and was in possession of shields. 

 Trinidad is typically South American also with respect to fauna. 

 Although the bow had penetrated the West Indies as far north as 

 Haiti, the use of the shield had not yet advanced beyond Trinidad. 

 The Carib was instrumental in bringing the bow to the Antilles, as 

 no bow was found to be in use by the natives of the Bahamas, 

 Jamaica, or Cuba, and those portions of Haiti which the Caribs had 

 not yet reached in their raiding expeditions. There the dart and 

 spear thrower were still the essential projectile weapons. 



War clubs of stone resembling stone axes were used by the Carib 

 as tools and ceremonially as weapons by their caciques and headmen. 

 Such axes were used as weapons in a haf ted form. When held in the 

 hand, as a hammerstone is used, without the aid of a haft, the stone 

 object was used as an implement only in much the same way as is the 

 polished stone celt. It is not known, however, that hafted petaloid 

 stone celts were ever employed other than as peaceful implements. 

 The entire question of the presence of a hafted stone war club in 

 the Antilles is problematical even with respect to the Carib. 



Although many hammerstones and notched and flaked stone ob- 

 jects resembling the more finished Carib stone ax were recovered 

 bj^ the Museum expedition in Samana, no single object of the nature 

 of a stone weapon of any description was uncovered. 



Hahitations. — The dwellings of the Island Arawak resemble those 

 of the more highly developed tribes of tropical South America. The 

 dwellings of the Florida key fishing tribes, so far as we know, were 

 of the same type and were not like the pile dwellings of a more 

 specialized building technique peculiar to the South American river 

 deltas. The less developed of the Haitian and Cuban tribes lived 

 in caves. Later, on emerging from their cave structures, natives of 

 Haiti developed two types of house architecture. In one type a circle 

 of poles was forced into the earth, each pole separated from the others 

 by 2 or 3 meters distance. Between these poles were lashed with 

 rattan sections of palms or canes. Transverse beams resting on the 



