i 



GUESDE COLLECTION OF ANTIQUITIES IN WEST INDIES. 733 



The editor caimot conclude this iutroductioD without piiying- the 

 highest tribute of praise to ^^I. Guesde, who lias, at great cost, brought 

 together so mauy wonderful specimens of ancient Carib art. 



AS a guide to the understanding of the true size of the specimens by 

 the drawings, a line is placed by the side of each picture, aud upon 

 these lines true inches on the specimens are indicated by dots. This 

 plan is resorted to because by photographic reductions exact propor- 

 tions are not always observed. Whatever reduction the camera makes 

 upon the drawing it will also make on the accompanying line, and the 

 inch spaces will be reduced accordingly. 



M. Guesde gives the following bit of personal history concerning 

 these antiquities (pp. 53-GO) : , • , i ^ t 



From my youth I have always been deeply impressed with what 1 

 have read about the Caribs. The sight of the stone objects which once 

 belonged to these primitive inhabitants of the Antilles produced an 

 indescribable impression on me. 



As years went by the stronger became my desire to collect together 

 all that the soil of Gaudeloupe might contain relating to the Caribs. 



I accordingly went to work in the year 1866, and after eighteen years 

 of constant research, never allowing myself to be discouraged by any 

 difficulty, I have the satisfaction of being able to exhibit to ethnolo- 

 gists this collection, which I believe to be more complete than all others 

 now existing, in Paris as well as in America. 



My collection includes roughly-worked stones indicating an industry 

 in its infancy ; and others, on the contrary, which are brought to such 

 a degree of perfection that it would be difficult to improve on them, 

 either in design or workmanship. 



It is necessary to state the fact which permitted John Lubbock to 

 class the aboriginal inhabitants of the American islands among the 

 neolithic peoples; it is because the stone is always polished. There 

 is not a single relic formed solely by being chipped, for those rare 

 pieces (axes or chisels) which present such an appearance also have the 

 surface very well polished. Besides, these volcanic stones cannot be 

 worked bv chipping, like flint, quartz, or obsidian. 



We come across axes so small that we ask ourselves if they were not 

 used by pygmies, and these alongside of others so large and heavy 

 that we dream of Titans, and no longer of men like ourselves. 



In addition to all these relics, which I have gathered from the ground 

 in all parts of the colony, both on the sea-shore and in the interior, and 

 at altitudes of from 200 to 1)00 meters, enormous stones covered with 

 strange designs are found, especially in a single quarter of Guadeloupe 

 proper. The dimensions of these stones vary considerably. In some 

 the drawings are so high up that it is difficult to reach them; in others 

 they are near the ground or buried under the surface. They are scat- 

 tered without order about the country and in the beds of the rivers. 

 At St. Vincent, also, the last refuge of the Caribs, stones with inscrip- 

 tions on them are found in the beds of rivers. 



