I 1 8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS' [vol. 45 



Chisels and other Iiiiplciiiciits. — A number of stone chisels', used 

 for incising the compUcated designs on objects of wood or stone 

 were obtained in Porto Rico. These are cyHndrical, and are either 

 flattened to a sharp edge or pointed at one or both extremities. 

 Some of these chisels have a cutting edge on one end and a point 

 at the other, while others are blunt at one end with a point or an 

 edge at the other. One of the chisels is perforated at the end 

 opposite the sharp edge. 



Other Stone Objects. — A stone implement, not belonging to the 

 petaloid type of celts nor to the chisels, is of ovoid form which con- 

 tinues at one pole into a slightly curved extension that fits the 

 hand so well as to suggest its use as a mawl. 



Another type of stone objects, possibly ceremonial, consists of a 

 stone disk with a slender handle attached to the rim. The richly 

 decorated specimen of this type in the Smithsonian collection (plate 

 XL, 4) was obtained in Santo Domingo by Mr. Gabb. 



Two other stones (plate xl, i, 2), one hard and black, the other 

 brown and of softer material, are flat at one end, with bifurcated 

 tips to the handles. One may assume that these objects were used 

 as rubbing or polishing implements. Handles with bifurcated tips 

 occur also in stone implements from the Lesser Antilles. 



One of the stones in the Archbishop's collection has a profile like 

 that of a clam-shell, the valve area having rounded projections. 

 There is also in this collection a stone of melon shape, with meridian 

 surface grooves which remind one of the ambulacral plates of a sea- 

 urchin. The irregularity of these grooves and the artificially pecked 

 surface stamp this object as an implement rather than as a fossil, 

 which it somewhat resembles. 



Some of th^e many stone balls found in Porto Rico, especially in 

 ball courts or in streams, are undoubtedly artificial ; but others are 

 natural, water-worn bowlders. They vary in size from several feet 

 in diameter to that of a marble. One of the smaller specimens, made 

 of soft stone, has small pits at the opposite poles. 



Among the problematical objects from Porto Rico are two white 

 stones unlike any yet described. They are cylindrical, four and a 

 half inches long by an inch in diameter, and perforated at each end 

 in such manner as to suggest, at first glance, that they w^ere strung 

 together in necklaces. A similar stone object, somewhat better made 

 and ornamented with a human hand carved in relief on the surface, 

 was seen in the Nazario collection. The stone cylinders are sym- 

 bolic, not decorative, objects, and were carried in the hand for some 

 imknown purpose. In his excavations at Utuado the author found 

 a similar object made of bone. 



