MATERIAL CULTURE OP THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 55 



Cuba and in Santo Domingo, the native warriors bound to their 

 foreheads when entering a fight. 



Each cacique in Santo Domingo had a well-built hut situated a 

 little distance from the rest of the settlement in which the various 

 zemis were kept. There, too, was a well-carved wooden " table " made 

 " like a dish," on which was the powdered tobacco which was laid 

 on the head of the zemi and snuffed through a hollow cane shaped 

 like a Y, the two upper branches being inserted in the nostrils. 



A description of an important religious ceremony has come down 

 to us which clearly was held in honor of the powers presiding over 

 agriculture. For this the cacique would appoint a day, making the 

 announcement by means of messengers. The people assembled in 

 gala dress, the men painted red, black, and yellow, and decorated with 

 the feathers of parrots and other birds of bright plumage. The 

 women were not painted ; those who were married wore a loin cloth, 

 but the unmarried were nude. All had their arms and legs, from 

 the loiee down, covered with shell ornaments which rattled as they 

 moved. The cacique entered the zemi hut where the priests were 

 decking the idol and sat down at the door, playing on a wooden gong. 

 The populace advanced, the men first, dancing and singing, and, 

 after thrusting sticks down their throats in order to produce vom- 

 iting (by which they were supposed to attain a condition of cere- 

 monial purity), they sat down before the zemi and began a cere- 

 monial chant. Then certain other women entered, bearing baskets of 

 bread ornamented with garlands, and went round the singers, repeat- 

 ing a little chant. This was answered by the audience, which after- 

 wards began a song in honor of the cacique and his ancestors. Dur- 

 ing this performance the bread was offered to the idol and then 

 distributed by the priests among those present, who took it home and 

 carefully preserved it until the next year as a powerful amulet 

 against fire and hurricanes. The ceremonial use of bread here re- 

 ferred to as a native Haitian practice has, of course, no connection 

 with the somewhat similar Christian observance of the Lord's 

 Supper. 



Clothing and W'eamng. — The Arawak Indians of the Antillean 

 Archipelago possessed but scanty clothing, although skillful weavers 

 of cotton cloth. Women wore a short skirt of woven cotton fabric 

 after marriage, but unmarried girls went naked. In the culturally 

 more advanced districts of aboriginal Haiti there was a distinction 

 between women's skirts according to the rank of the wearer, the 

 typical garments of this description reaching from the waist to mid- 

 thigh, while the skirts of women of importance extended to the ankle. 

 Among the Lucayans of the Bahamas and the natives of Porto Rico, 

 Haiti, and Cuba the male population went entirely nude. Body 

 painting was resorted to in the absence of clothing. 



