MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 41 



with figurine heads similar to those of Costa Rica, Panama, and 

 elsewhere on the continent. No report is available concerning the 

 construction of stools of Trinidad, Paria, and the adjacent South 

 American coast. 



It appears that the best stools were found by the Spanish in 

 Xaragua, in southwestern Haiti. The workshop was on the island 

 of Gonave. So far as is known, not one object of native manufacture 

 presented to the Spanish by the native caciques of the time has ever 

 found its way into museums or is at all extant to-day. No stone 

 " metate " stools, wooden stools, or other object of native furni- 

 ture of a practical nature other than objects of pottery were recovered 

 by the Museum expedition. Earthenware objects were, however, 

 picked up .almost at will. 



Relative iiwportance of hunting and -fishing. — The food supply of 

 the natives of Samana varied in accordance with the food-collecting 

 habits of the various groups. Investigations b}^ the Museum expe- 

 dition established a wide range of food resources for the several sites 

 explored, the former occupants of the caves on the south shore of the 

 bay being primarily gatherers and collectors of shellfish, snakes, 

 rodents, fish, bats, worms, birds, or whatever natural produce came 

 to hand, while at Anadel, on the north shore, bird, fish, and animal 

 bones were in greater abundance. The large number of jutia man- 

 dibles and skulls uncovered at Anadel and San Juan indicate a de- 

 pendence on hunting as a food resource. Anadel is but 15 kilometers 

 northeast of San Lorenzo Bay and the caves of the Playa Honda 

 coast. It is therefore not unexpected to find in the upper culture 

 stratum of the caves a predominance of fish and small mammal bones 

 over the deposits of the remains of shellfish as conch, clam, and 

 oyster shells which predominated in the lower culture stratum of the 

 cave middens. It is also possible that the pre-Ciguayan cave popula- 

 tion later merged with the Ciguayans who came over from the north 

 shore and there developed a modified form of Tainoan culture which 

 was dependent on fishing rather than on the cultivation of the 

 yucca as a food resource. Doctor Abbott found a species of jutia 

 {Plagiodontia hylaeum) still living in the forested lowlands of the 

 south shore of the bay, although the several forms of small mammal 

 life still in existence at the time of the discovery in eastern Haiti 

 soon became practically extinct after the arrival of the Spanish, the 

 disruption of native culture, and the introduction of slavery. 



In general, it may be inferred that fishing rather tlian agriculture 

 was the chief support of the Ciguayan population of the narrow pen- 

 insula of Samana. The find of several stone pestles and of fragments 

 of circular earthenware griddles for baking cassava, bread indicate a 

 dependence on agriculture and the cultivation of the cassava (Mani- 



