58 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A wooden zemi or amulet from the Samana Bay region is illus- 

 trated as 3 of Plate 11 (Cat. No. 340044, U.S.N.M.). This small 

 carved figurine is remarkably well preserved, although it had been 

 exposed to the deteriorating influences of centuries. It was found 

 at Anadel embedded in the durable dry, loamy clay near the bank 

 of the stream at a depth of 4 feet from the present top of the midden. 

 Unfortunately, the lower part of the left arm had been broken off. 

 The base, including the lower portion of the legs, is also missing. It 

 is therefore impossible to determine whether the conventional form of 

 flexing the lower limbs in zemis of shell and stone had been followed 

 by the aboriginal artist. The figurine, in so far as it has been re- 

 covered intact, is entirely different from the shell figurines recovered 

 by the Museum expedition from the San Juan and Upper Orange 

 Key sites. The carving had been deeply incised in shaping parts 

 of the figure and in portraying facial features, as eyes and mouth. 

 It resembles more the large wooden zemi from Puerto Plata figured 

 by Dr. J. W. Fewkes ^^. A headdress is represented by a transversely 

 encircling incised groove at the crown. Within the encircling groove 

 are five short parallel incised lines extending from the front to the 

 back of the head. Sinuous incised grooves and embossed surfaces at 

 the back seem to indicate long flowing hair. A raised surface care- 

 fully embossed by cutting away the adjoining surfaces extends down 

 the sides. This also may represent long, flowing hair. In the two 

 deep-set pits representing eye sockets and the deep-set plane of the 

 mouth with thick raised upper lip one again sees typical Tainoan 

 technic in delineating the human figure. The embossed ridges rep- 

 resenting eye orbits and the upper and lower lips resemble the luted 

 on strips of clay representing corresponding features in clay figurines. 

 For each raised surface appears a corresponding pit or central ex- 

 cavated surface. The recovered section of this wooden figurine (Cat. 

 No. 341044, U.S.N.M.) is 2.7 centimeters (1.1 inches) long, 1.3 centi- 

 meters (0.5 inch) wide, and 0.7 centimeter thick. It appears in 

 slightly enlarged form in the illustration (pi. 11, No. 3). As the 

 entire section of the portion of the figure recovered is slightly curved, 

 with the concavity at the back, and as the basal portion is missing, 

 it is possible that the figure is the decorated end of an unusually small 

 swallowing stick and not a zemi figurine in the usual sense. 



Ohjects of stone and tnetal. — Ciguayan Indians of Samana did not 

 use stone architecturally. There are, therefore, few fixed works 

 other than shell heaps and large kitchen middens near the sites of 

 former villages. The crumbling walls of a rectangular earthenware 

 structure in the hills a few kilometers back of Samana Bay may 

 possibly represent the remains of a Ciguayan structure — possibly a 



21 Thirty-fourth Annual Rept., Bur. Amer. Ethn., pi. 90. 



