ETHNOLOGY. 393 



an enemy. There is no mention, however, so far as I am acquainted, of 

 the natives performing human sacrifices. This lashing theory is strength- 

 ened by the fact that on some of the masks which closely resemble the 

 mammiform stones there are cleat-like projections, evidently to be 

 lashed to a handle. There are no grooves worn in the furrows by a 

 lashing that I could discover. The bulging to one side of the mammae, 

 some to the right, others to the left, hints at their use in pairs. Their 

 elegance of design and variety of execution in conformity with an ideal, 

 characterize these as the highest type of sculpture with stone imple- 

 ments in the world. 



The collars are quite as puzzling. Their right and left shouldering, 

 and the more exquisite finish of the panel opposite the shoulder, when 

 the panel is present, seem to prove that they were to be used in pairs. 

 Their gradation in ornament, the presence or absence and the form of 

 certain conventional parts, seem to speak of distinctions of some kind. 

 Some very interesting indications of the manner in which humanity has 

 elaborated its culture, guided by the leading strings of nature, are given 

 in the course and construction of the ridges and furrows which consti- 

 tute the ornaments of the panels and the marginal ornaments. There 

 are no sharp and deep corners, but the furrows wind about in curves 

 returning into themselves, or run out into some deeper furrow, simply 

 because a man working with a stone tool cannot make a sharp and deep 

 corner. Some of the designs on these panels and marginal ornaments 

 are very ingenious, as may be seen by the patterns given in Figs. 52, 

 54, 56, 57, and 60. The same characteristic is noticeable in the scroll- 

 work of the wooden tools, and in Fig. 43. Such is the form of these 

 relics of an extinct race ; but whether they were the regalia of sacrifi- 

 cial victims, of military heroes, of ecclesiastical worthies, or of members 

 of some privileged caste, who marched in double file through the streets 

 of Porto Eican villages long since decayed, will perhaps forever remain 

 a mystery. (Stephens's Herrera, i, 62.) 



One of the objects of this perhaps too detailed description will be 

 accomplished, if the light thrown upon this neolithic people by the 

 Latimer collection shall guide some future explorer among their anti- 

 quities, if haply he may be able to decipher their meaning. 



