72 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bead (Cat. No. 341011, U.S.N.M.) is 3.5 centimeters (1.5 inches) long 

 and 1.7 centimeters (0.7 inch) in diameter. Its resemblance in form 

 to the completed greenstone tubular bead 11 of Plate 10 is apparent, 

 although it was recovered at San Juan, on the north coast of the 

 peninsula, while 11 was recovered with the sievings at Upper Orange 

 Key, on the south shore of Samana Bay. This latter tubular bead 

 (Cat No. 341070, U.S.N.M.) has several incised lines encircling 

 the surface. The lines are crudely fashioned and are not accurately 

 drawn. The smaller plain-surfaced tubular bead (Cat No. 341069, 

 U.S.N.M.) are figured as 10, 12, and 13 of Plate 10. They are of 

 a greenish soapstone, but are very irregular as to form. The outer 

 surface is not symmetrically rounded, as in 2 and 11; neither are the 

 end sectors or edges even. The durable stone appears to have been 

 cut with great difficulty; likewise has the axial drilling of the per- 

 foration for suspension been laborious with the tools at the disposal 

 of the aboriginal jeweler. In 11 the perforation is fairly uniform, 

 with a diameter of 0.5 centimeter, while the perforation in the 

 shorter beads, 10 12, and 13, is slightly larger (0.6 centimeter) and 

 more irregular. In 12 and 13 two or more false starts and incomplete 

 drillings may be seen along with the finished perforation. The 

 length of the perforation to be excavated with the primitive drilling 

 tools of the Taino was a serious technical problem. Bead 11 is 

 3.4 centimeters (1.3 inches) long, while 10, 12, and 13 are 1.8 centi- 

 meters (0.7 inch) in length. 



Among the articles recovered with the mortuary offerings at the 

 rock-cleft burials on Upper Orange Key is a tubular object of 

 worked calcite (Cat. No. 341009, U.S.N.M.). This object is illus- 

 trated as 6 in Plate 9. It is 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) long, and 

 0.7 centimeter in diameter at the base, but tapers to a 2 millimeter 

 point. This tubular object had been used as a perforator or drill, 

 twirled with the thumb and fingers. Its diameter is too great to 

 permit its having been used to excavate the perforations of the 

 greenstone beads figured in Plate 10, but it might very well have 

 been used for a part of the work. An attempt was made by the 

 writer to use the calcite perforator as a drill in this fashion, with 

 considerable success. Although calcite does not occur on the south 

 shore of Samana Bay, many fragments were found with the burial 

 offerings in the dry rock cleft of Upper Orange Key. Smaller drills 

 of calcite were probably used to make the excavation in holes requir- 

 ing a tool with smaller bore. Calcite fragments were valued by the 

 aborigines because of the smooth cleavage planes of the calcite crys- 

 tals. An interesting observation was the find of many fragments 

 of calcite in the kitchen midden at San Juan, on the north coast of 

 the peninsula. One of the fragments had been perforated near one 

 end with a transverse, biconical, hourglass-shape hole for suspension 



