KITCHEN MIDDENS OF JAMAICA 



297 



consequence the news spread after a 

 while that I was paying real money for 

 Indian stones, and I was rewarded by 

 having many hatchets, stone pendants, 

 and pestles brought in to me. 



My work at Greenhill was the most 

 extensive, and from the middens there — 

 although they are similar to the St. Acre 

 and other middens — I obtained the best 

 specimens. 



The extinction of the xVrawak was so 

 complete that there are but few simi- 

 lar cases in history. People like this 

 race, living in a tropical climate, quite 

 unused to work of a laborious nature, 

 would speedily feel the effects of forced 

 labor. After the Spaniards came, they 

 needed workers for the gold mines in 

 Haiti, for the making of roads and the 

 cultivation of crops in Jamaica. They 

 forced the Indians to labor for them, and 

 with the cruelty characteristic of the 

 age, killed off the natives with almost 

 incredible swiftness. 



It is only natural that the Arawak 

 came to have a different view of people 

 whom they at first fondly imagined were 

 sent from heaven, and it was not long 

 before they took to their mountain re- 

 treats, in order to escape forced labor 

 and a painful death. But what could a 

 peaceful race, with practically no weap- 

 ons of defence, do against the superior 

 weapons and the bloodhounds of the 

 Spaniards? The Jamaican Arawak were 

 exterminated by 1558, only sixty-four 

 years after the discovery of the island, 

 and none were left to tell a later genera- 

 tion of their tribal customs. The meager 

 accounts given by Columbus and his 

 contemporaries have to be supplemented 

 by such conclusions as we can draw from 

 a study of the relics left in their kitchen 

 middens. 



Columbus, in his description of the 

 natives of Jamaica, lays special stress 

 upon their proficiency in the art of work- 



Two of a considerable series of spindle-shaped 

 celts found in Jamaica by Mr. IjOngley. They 

 were probably used as chisels. The specimens flg- 

 lu-ed are of black and green stone respectively j 



ing stone, and mentions having seen some 

 good stone ornaments worn by the heads 

 of tribes. 



Two notable objects in the collection 

 are the two idols or zemes of brown sand- 

 stone, about five and one-half inches 

 in height. They crudely represent the 

 human form, and undoubtedly were con- 



