CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 77 



A figurine from the village of Caledonia, on Caledonia Bay of 

 the San Bias coast, carved from a block of hardwood 27.5 cm. 

 (10.8 in.) in length, represents the native medicine man (lele) him- 

 self. The face, legs, and shirt front are unpainted, while the re- 

 mainder of the carving is covered with a commercial green paint. 

 The carving represents a native in aboriginal attire. The mat of 

 hair reaching to the shoulders is indicated by a panel in low relief 

 edged with small vertical incisions. 



Another Tule hardwood figurine, 29.3 cm. (11.5 in.) in length, 

 and mounted on a small flat pedestal carved from the same block 

 of wood, represents a chief holding a staff of command in his right 

 hand. The staff is painted yellow and resembles a war club with a 

 bulbous head tapering to a smaller circular handle or grip. The 

 staff extends the full length of the torso and the chief is repre- 

 sented as grasping it at the center. This may be due to the artist's 

 lack of resource, resulting in a crowding of the design (Cat. No. 

 327486, U.S.N.M., pi. 18, No. 7). The front of the torso is painted 

 yellow while the rest of the figurine is in black except the face, 

 which is painted red. An ornamental design of crudely incised 

 parallel horizontal lines appears on front and rear of the hat crown, 

 on upper bulbous portion of the staff, and on the lower torso front. 



Female figurines are never represented as wearing European 

 clothes. The variety of design is less in extent than in the carvings 

 representing the male human figure. 



A female messenger, " mimi-shur- walla " (Tule), a carving 40.2 

 cm. (15.8 in.) in length painted in black and red, collected by Dr. 

 O. W. Barrett and now in the National Museum collections, was 

 vised by the medicine man of " King Colman " of the San Bias 

 coast Tule to collect information. This is the most elaborate of the 

 female carvings in wood from the San Bias coast. 



An unpainted female figurine from Caledonia village, carved from 

 a block of hardwood, 13.5 cm. (5.3 in.) in length, was probably used 

 as a toy. The figurine wears a hat similar to that of some of the 

 male pottery and wooden figurines, consisting of a double hat brim 

 with flat, quadrangular crown (Cat. No. 327479, U.S.N.M., pi. 18, 

 No. 8). A novel detail is the carving in low relief of three bands 

 encircling each lower arm from elbow to wrist, representing the 

 ornamental armbands of beads worn by the Tule girls and women. 



Another unpainted wooden figurine from the San Bias coast is 

 carved from cedar wood and is 16.8 cm. (6.6 in.) long. The figure 

 represents a Tule woman garbed in characteristic attire with mantle 

 thrown over the head and dropping to the waist at the back and 

 with knee length skirt. An ornamental design consisting of diagon- 

 ally crossed incised parallel lines covers the surface of the mantle 

 and skirt. A fretwork of notched incisions decorates the lower skirt 



