﻿FEWKES] PORTO RICAN STONE COLLARS I 8 I 



menl (" boveda que cubria la tierra"); Inner, he asserts, the base 

 (of the tripointed stone) is scooped out in the form of an arch. " hi 

 a word," says Navarette, "this figure [tripointed image] is a semi 

 [zemi], the unique [ndo-Borinquen idol in which is symbolized the 



creator and inert matter on two sides of chaos which extends over the 

 firmament [boveda del Universo]." 



\\y chief objection to 1 )r. Cantero's interpretation of the symbolism 

 of the tripointed idols is that he elevates a " genius of evil " to a place 

 it never occupied in the mind of the Antilleans. There is no satis- 

 factory prooi that the Borinquen Indians ever recognized a god of 

 evil as we understand the conception. The)' no doubt believed in a 

 great being whose power caused the terrible hurricanes which at times 

 sweep over the island, and they possibly personated or deified this 

 power as a great snake god. The early missionaries readily imagined 

 that this deification of a mythic serpent was the analogue of their 

 own personification of evil, but this interpretation was wholly their 

 own, not that of the Indians. 1 



Navarette advances no adequate support for his statement that the 

 conoid projection represents " chaos," and gives no authority for the 

 statement that the Antilleans believed that the union of the principle 

 creador and matter gave birth to the universe. I must also take issue 

 with him in his statement that the " semi " is the unique " Indo- 

 Borinquen " idol in which is symbolized this principio creador, 

 because I believe he has mistaken the true meaning of the term zemi. 

 Although the great Sky God may have been called a semi, chemi, 

 cemi, or zemi, the word probably means not one but many subordinate 

 supernatural beings, as elsewhere pointed out. Tutelary gods are 

 called zemis, in which case the word has simply the same meaning 

 as " clan totem." These tripointed Borinquen idols have different 

 forms, representing reptiles, birds, and human beings, a difference 

 which indicates the improbability that they represent one great super- 

 natural being or creator ("principio creador"). 



The comparison of the head of a tripointed stone with a " creator " 

 and the feet with "matter," the conical projection representing 

 "chaos." has no historical evidence to support it, while the recogni- 

 tion of the arch of the universe in the curved base is equally unsup- 

 ported. The second and third types of tripointed idols show the 

 absurdity of the entire theory of the nature of the tripointed stones 



'The word mabouya, used by the Antilleans as a name of some of their 

 gods, as well as of images of the same, is probably derived from ma, 

 "great," and boya, "snake." The same word boya (English boa) likewise 

 gave tin' name boii, "sorcerers," to some of their priestly orders. 



