32 BULLETIN 134, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



a large pottery vessel. The household gods, carved from blocks of 

 balsa wood and painted in black and yellow designs, are fastened to 

 posts by nails fashioned from bits of chonta palm wood or tucked 

 into crevices of the thatch. A railing (pi. 36, No. 3), of four or five 

 horizontally placed poles tied to the wall posts with iron withe, pre- 

 vents children and adults from falling from the house to the ground. 

 Every family dwelling has a palm-leaf inclosed toilet built out over 

 the water. There is also a shallow well dug near the house. The 

 water is brackish and may be used only for cooking and washing 

 purposes. For bathing a gourd is dipped into the water and then 

 poured over the head and body. 



The cooking apparatus of the Tule and of the Choco consists of 

 iron pots secured from traders or in Panama City, of locally made 

 pottery vessels, chiefly cooking pots and stoves, canteens, and stor- 

 age jars, and of calabash or gourd ware. There are no knives or 

 forks and everyone eats with one's fingers. A small building is 

 usually erected in the rear of the large family dwellings for cook- 

 ing purposes. 



The Cuna houses of the interior mountainous uplands resemble 

 more the Tule type than Choco. Vertical walls of short poles of 

 quite irregular length often falling short by several feet of reaching 

 the roof are held together by two horizontally placed poles (pi. 3, No. 

 1). The houses are rectangular, not so large as the Tule houses, ex- 

 cept the tribal council or community houses, which are very large 

 structures capable of containing hundreds of people. 



Wafer in 1699 wrote about the architecture of the Panamanian 

 native tribes, and in not very complimentary terms referred to the 

 buildings as all irregular. There was no chimney, but the fire was 

 made in the middle of the house on the ground, the smoke going 

 out at a hole through the top or at crevices in the thatch. The 

 house was not divided into rooms, but was constructed of one room 

 only, and there were no doors, no shelves, and no other seats than 

 logs of Avood. Every one of the family had a hammock tied up 

 under the roof and reaching from one end of the house to the other. 

 All girls have cedar chests, boxes, or bags for storing their dresses 

 and personal belongings. Large forts were formerly built as a 

 protection against the Spanish and native tribes. It was a great 

 inconvenience that these forts were easily set afire, and the Span- 

 iards shot into the thatch arrows with long iron shanks made red 

 hot for that purpose. There was usually a family of Indians 

 living in this war house as a guard and to keep it clean. The war 

 houses were used also to hold their councils or other general meet- 

 ings. This double function of fort and council house no longer 

 applies. The Darien tribes have not been known to wage warfare 

 against one another within historic times, and as a gathering place 



