MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 83 



The neck and head of canteen 3, Plate 15, Cat. No. 341037, 

 U.S.N.M., has a raised rim, well rounded and tapered from the 

 orifice to the neck area. The globular expansion of the walls of the 

 lower neck is again apparent in this specimen. It is also studded 

 with raised surfaces and decorative figures. The walls again become 

 constricted before merging with the walls of the body of the vessel. 



In the canteen under description there is a raised disk appearing 

 on the rim section, shapped in the form of a circle and dot. This 

 becomes the head of a figurine, the legs of which appear at the sides 

 of the neck. Another raised disk on the lower neck walls becomes 

 the umbilicus of the figurine. The interior of the neck of the vessel 

 shows how elaborately fitted together are the several luted-on parts 

 of the decorative embellishments. The vessel is an excellent exam- 

 ple of Antillean potter's art, but apparently does not belong to the 

 primitive Ciguayan type of water bottle, which was plain and of 

 unpainted red ware. 



Archaic clay figunne heads. — It has been the customary thing to 

 refer to the typical Tainoan clay figurine heads as " grotesque." It 

 is apparent that such a term is misleading, in that the "grotesque- 

 ness " is due not to intentional deformation or distortion of heads from 

 clay but is due to the technic of the primitive plastic artist following 

 conventional lines of sculpturing and modeling of facial features or 

 even of an entire figure. The rules are so simple as to make a real- 

 istic portrayal impossible. Use of incised lines and pits surrounded 

 with ridges are the only means employed to achieve highly artistic 

 results. To be sure there is a rough modeling of the head with 

 frontal, orbital, nasal, and chin eminences well marked. Even such 

 details as ear appendages are modeled out of the solid, but as a rule 

 the eyes, eyelids, nostrils, lips, teeth, headdress, convolutions of the 

 ear, the ear lobe, and mouth are represented by simple luting on of ap- 

 plied ribbons of clay in curvilinear or rectilinear designs, as the 

 artist's motive demands. 



A group of somewhat different type of design of modeling appears 

 in the three heads illustrated in Plate 16. With this group should 

 be considered 6 of Plate 19. The technic is the same as for 

 the type of clay modeling just described, but the results are some- 

 wdiat different. It is in the detail, size, distortion, or rather exag- 

 geration, together with the addition of certain details not usually 

 included in the small clay figurines. One of these details, exag- 

 gerated in the figures illustrated, is the shape of the ears. The form 

 of modeling in each of the four figures illustrated varies. For 1 in 

 Plate 16 the ear convolutions are represented by two concentric oval 

 ridges alternating with two incised grooves, the inner of which is a 

 straight line. In 2 on the same plate the ear is more realistically 



