16 BULLETIX 15 6, UNITED STATES XATIOXAL MUSEUM 



the Yuna Kiver in the east, was the most densely populated section 

 of the island, although, according to the Spanish accounts, the In- 

 dians of what is now the Haitian Province of Jeremie were cul- 

 turally the most advanced. The Ciguayans of the northern moun- 

 tains spoke a different dialect of Arawak from the Indians of the 

 northern coast of Haiti west of the Yaque Valley. Their speech 

 differed also from that of the Indians of the Vega. 



It is significant that the Ciguayans and other Indian groups in 

 eastern Santo Domingo and Porto Rico were in possession of bows 

 and arrows, though lacking in defensive armor. The Arawak of 

 western Haiti and of Cuba and the Bahamas, who had no contact 

 with the warlike Carib, were as yet not acquainted with the bow. 



NATIVE TRIBES AND PROVINCES 



The Arawak Indians of Santo Domingo were grouped in provinces 

 having more or less well-defined natural boundaries. The political 

 and religious head of each of the principal provinces, of which 

 there were five, was known to the Spanish as a cacique, a term ap- 

 plied by them also to Central American and Mexican Indian chiefs. 

 Caciques were the leaders and advisers of their people and appear 

 to have combined the native offices of chief and medicine man. Their 

 powers were extensive, as they orderd the routine of daily life and 

 work. They assigned to individuals such widely separated duties 

 as communal hunting, fishing, and the tillage of the soil; they 

 also presided at religious ceremonies. Peter Martyr observed that 

 " every king hath his subjects divided to sundry affairs, as some to 

 fishing, other to hunting, and other some to husbandrie." Columbus 

 writes that " I could not clearly understand whether this people 

 possess any private property, for I observe that one man had the 

 charge of distributing various things to the rest, but especially 

 meat, provisions, and the like."' No regular tribute was demanded 

 by the caciques from their subjects, but the best of the food and the 

 finest of the agricultural products were reserved for them. Ac- 

 cording to Oviedo, one species of the smaller rodents of the genus 

 Plagiodontia was reserved for the exclusive use of the cacique and 

 his family. Fewkes says that " as a rule each village seems to have 

 had a chieftain or patriarchal head of the clans composing it, whose 

 house was larger than the other houses and contained the idols be- 

 longing to the families. The cacique, his numerous wives and 

 their children, brotliers, sisters, and other kindred were a consider- 

 able population, often forming a whole village. In addition to the 

 household of the cacique, consisting of his wives and immediate 

 relations, a prehistoric village ordinarily contained also men, women, 

 and children of more distant kinship," The term " cacique " is 

 used in a very loose sense by the early Spanish chroniclers to desig- 



