Il6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vOL. 45 



though unwihing- to sell, gave every facility for study, kindly allow- 

 ing the author free use of his notes and catalogue, in which are 

 recorded the localities from which the specimens were obtained. 

 The Imbert collection contains several unique objects, among which 

 are a wooden idol (the best yet discovered in the West Indies), five 

 sticks once used to induce vomiting, several pieces of prehistoric 

 pottery of unusual shape, and numerous stone implements and rare 

 fetishes. Another Dominican collection, owned by Sefior Des- 

 angles (a native painter whose picture of Conoabo attracted atten- 

 tion at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo), contains, among 

 other prehistoric objects, a human effigy made of burnt clay and 

 probably unique. Sr. Jose Gabriel Garcia, an author and a member 

 of the leading publishing firm in Santo Domingo city, has many 

 Indian specimens. The late Dr. Alesandro Llenas, of Santiago de 

 los Caballeros, owned a well-preserved aboriginal wooden stool and 

 two prehistoric Antillean skulls ; and a Mr. Hall, an American of 

 Puerto Plata, has a collection of stone objects. Both of the latter 

 collections were generously placed at the disposal of the writer for 

 study. 



There still remain in Porto Rico many scattered prehistoric ob- 

 jects and one or two collections, among which may be mentioned 

 that of Padre Nazario of Guayanilla. The owner kindly allowed 

 the author to inspect this important collection, which contains many 

 rare and unique objects. 



STONE IMPLEMENTS 



Celts. — The so-called celts which, as a rule, are finely polished, 

 pointed at one end, and sharpened at the other, are called by the 

 country people, as above stated, picdras de rayo, or " thunder-stones," 

 since they are believed to have fallen from the sky. Almost every 

 household has one or more of these stones, which are thought to 

 aft'ord protection from lightning, or to be efficacious in the treat- 

 ment of certain bodily disorders. The method employed by the 

 natives to determine whether a stone is a " thunder-stone " or not, is 

 to tie a string about it and put it in the flame of a candle. If the 

 string burns immediately, the stone is not regarded as a true thun- 

 der-stone. About five hundred celts tested in this way and re- 

 garded by their owners as veritable thunder-stones were purchased. 

 These celts are of many forms, from simple polished stones to well- 

 made hatchets. Only one specimen of all those obtained in Porto 

 Rico was provided with a groove for the attachment of a handle ; in 

 this specimen the groove was roughly pecked and was not polished 

 li^-e the remaining surface. 



