REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 49 



Rico, Haiti, and the i!^laii,(l.s iinmt'diately adjacent, he waw prevented, partly by the 

 volcanic disturbances of early. May, from extending observations beyonfl the first- 

 named island; yet this failure- of plfvo resulted beneficially rather than otherwise, 

 since it enabled him to make -a more definite ethnologic and archpeologic survey of 

 Porto Rico than was at first contemplated. Among the surviving types of aboriginal 

 handicraft to which he gave special attention were those connected with habitations. 

 In all jmrts of the American hemisphere the prevailing house type is in some measure 

 a composite, or blend, of the indigenous and the imported; and while in most dis- 

 tricts the imported motives are so far predominant that tiie indigenous elements are 

 hardly traceal)le, there are other districts, especially in tropical, subtropical, and arid 

 regions, in which the aboriginal types are of such excellence that many elements 

 have l)een retained with advantage by Caucasian settlers. This is especially true in 

 the Antilles, where natural conditions of climate, water, and available material have 

 led to light and inexpensive types of construction by which European settlers have 

 been glad to profit. The types are somewhat analogous to those which have been 

 better developed in the Orient, especially in Japan, and which are frequently com- 

 mended to the attention of occidental builders and liouseholders. When it is remem- 

 bered that the prevailing Anglo-Saxon types are at once adapted to the rigorous 

 climate of northwestern Europe and adaptations of materials developed in the north- 

 ern temperate zone, it l^ecomes evident that tiiey are not well suited to our southern 

 temperate zone, and especially to our tropical and su])tropical possessions. Then, 

 when it is remembered that the indigenous types, e. g., of Porto Rico, are specifically 

 adapted to the local climate and adaptations of local materials, it would seem clear that 

 architectural motives derived from them ought to be even more useful than any bor- 

 rowed from Jajjan. These considerations have influenced the researches in Porto 

 Rico, and they are in j)art the motive of the special report on Porto Rico prepared by 

 Dr. Fewkes. Other motives have grown out of the native food sources which have 

 been found useful by generations of European settlers, and out of those aboriginal 

 modes of food preparation which are of such excellence as still to survive. It would 

 appear from the observations that several native foods are worth j^ of attention and 

 cultivation by settlers from the United States, and that some of the indigenous modes 

 of preparing food might well receive careful study with a view to maintaining the 

 excellence of the preparations when more advanced modes of handling, milling, pre- 

 serving, and transporting are introduced. The details of Dr. Fewkes's investigations 

 are incorporated in a memoir designated for early publication in the form of a I)ul- 

 letiu. The industrial data are supplemented by bil)liographic and other material, 

 which will render the report a manual of Porto Rican ethnology and archfeology. 



The special investigation undertaken by Dr. Russell among the Pima Indians 

 covered aboriginal industries developed in and adapted to the arid region. Here, 

 as in Porto Rico, local types of habitation have resulted from the climatic and other 

 local conditions. The primal house type is a small circular structure of canes or 

 reeds, roofed with earth, the whole supported by an inner framework of poles. This 

 type is differentiated according to available materials, the grass house and the house 

 of cactus (okatilla stems or saguaro ribs) being closely related derivative forms. It is 

 differentiated also by arrangement of material, as when the canes or cactus staves 

 are wattled with reeds or withes, and the house tends to become square in plan with 

 vertical walls eventually beplastered by the washing of mud from the roof and by 

 the throwing up of embankments as wind-breaks below. Under the imitative 

 instinct of savagery the wattled walls are coated with a mortar of mud, which is 

 magically "hardened" by the embedment of pebbles and larger stones; and this 

 may be deemed the secondary type of aboriginal architecture in southwestern United 

 States and northern Mexico. From it develops under favorable conditions a third 

 type — i. e., that of rul)ble masonry set in mortar of mud (n* even laid dry; but where 

 building stone is lacking, the pebble-set wattle structure grows into a distinctive 



SM 1902 4 



