﻿1 66 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vol. 47 



terior of the cone. In one specimen with two such pits each is sur- 

 rounded by or enclosed within a raised rim ; in others a limb is carved 

 in relief extending forward from this rim. In one or two examples, 

 which have a fillet cut in relief on the forehead, there is a median 

 pit in this band as in some stone masks. In the majority of speci- 

 mens the depressions evidently once served as places for the attach- 

 ment of shell or gold ornaments. 



The use and meaning of the tripointed stones and collars are enig- 

 matical. No reference is made to them by writers of the sixteenth. 

 seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, although they often describe 

 the customs of the Indians in considerable detail. The absence of 

 references to these remarkable objects by those contemporary with 

 the natives has led some later authors to regard them as prehistoric, 

 and as having passed out of use before the advent of the Spaniards. 

 The first reference to stone collars and tripointed stones dates back 

 to the middle of the nineteenth century, long after the culture to 

 which they owe their origin had disappeared. 



CLASSIFICATION OF STONE COLLARS 



Professor Mason distinguishes two classes of stone collars, which 

 he calls " the massive oval, and the slender oblique ovate, or pear 

 shaped." " The latter," he says, 1 " are far more highly polished 

 and ornamented than the former, and some of the ornamental pat- 

 terns on the massive forms are reproduced but more elaborated on 

 the slender variety, notably the gourd-shaped ridge surrounding the 



panels." 



( '« .liars of both the above classes are subdivided by the same author 

 into two groups— (a) the right-shouldered, and (b) the left-shoul- 

 dered collars, which may be distinguished as follows: If -we imagine 

 the collar placed over the neck, with its smooth edge resting on the 

 chest and the pointed pole hanging downward, the collar may be 

 called left-shouldered when the projection " faintly resembling a 

 lashing of the two ends of a hoop " is on the wearer's left side and 

 the decorated panel on the right. When, however, these portions 

 have reversed positions, the collar is called right-shouldered. Cer- 

 tain of the massive collars have no superficial decoration, hut are 

 simply perforated stones, possibly unfinished specimens. 



The general characters of the two groups of stone collars, massive 



1 'I'h,' Latimer Collection of Antiquities from Porto Rico in the National 

 Museum, and The Guesde Collection of Antiquities in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guade- 

 loupe, West Indies; reprint, 1899, p. 3&S- These articles originally appeared 

 in the Smithsonian Reports for 1876 and [884 respectively. 



