CULTURE OF PEOPLE OP SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 33 



of refuge against the encroachments of intrusive ethnic elements, 

 such as the Spanish and the Negroes, this council house proved of 

 little value. It is possible that Wafer read into the temporary 

 employment of the council house as a fort in cases of emergency, a 

 practice that never existed generally, and for which such buildings 

 were never erected. 



Illumination. — In lighting their houses at night or to entice game 

 on hunting expeditions, and to attract fish to the surface of the 

 water, the Tule employ torches, " kwinnur " (Tule) (pi. 2, Nos. 

 1,2, 3, and 4). 



These torches are made by stringing a number of nuts of the 

 candlenut tree (Licania arborea), on rudely aggregated slivers of 

 palm wood. The candlenut tree grows along the Pacific coast of 

 Mexico and Central America, where it is everywhere used by the 

 natives for purposes of illumination. The nuts when ignited burn 

 slowly with a yellowish flame, giving off no smoke and but little 

 odor. The palm wood sliver is from the chonta palm, employed to 

 a great extent in the material culture of Central and South Ameri- 

 can native tribes; it acts somewhat like an absorbent wick. When 

 enough heat has been generated to melt the oil of the nut, sufficient 

 oil is absorbed into the palm wood to make a continuous flame as 

 each preceding nut becomes charred. The longest torch illustrated 

 (pi. 2) contains a series of 20 nuts, each nut being about 3.5 cm. 

 (1.4 inches) in length and 1.8 cm. (0.7 inch) in diameter. 



Another type of torch, described by Henry Pittier, is made by 

 dipping a piece of cloth in honey and then wrapping it in a tight 

 roll. Lanterns burning kerosene are sometimes purchased in the 

 cities to the west of Darien, in Panama City, or Colon. Negro and 

 Chinese traders and storekeepers sell kerosene oil in the well-known 

 tin containers retailed by the American oil-exporting concerns. 

 The " tin can " stage of civilization is reached when these tin con- 

 tainers are utilized by a primitive people for many purposes, some- 

 times supplying the only available source of metal, and substituting 

 for other materials in use before acculturation began. 



Calabash ware and decorative design. — Throughout the area of 

 tropical America the use of the fruit of the calabash tree {Crescentia 

 cujete) is general wherever the Indian population predominates. 

 Sometimes employed in combination with other materials, but more 

 often without their addition, it serves in various forms as a con- 

 tainer, as a domestic utensil and dish, and as an object for the 

 recording of decorative design. 



Indian tribes of temperate zones have never been known to culti- 

 vate or propagate the tree. The colonial pioneers found in close 

 proximity to Indian villages groves or thickets of wild plum and 



