CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 17 



Physical features of Porto Rico -1 



Precolumbian population 2::! 



Present descendants of the Porto Kican Indians 1'4 



Race and kinship 26 



Bodil}' characteristics 28 



Mental and moral characteristics 31 



Government 3:! 



Political divisions 35 



Houses 41 



Thatched with grasses 43 



Thatched with palm leaves 44 



With palm leaves on walls, and straw-thatched roofs 45 



With slabs of palm wood on walls 45 



Secular custoins 47 



Naming children; marriage customs 47 



Hunting and fishing 48 



Agriculture 50 



Religion 53 



Zemiism 54 



Zemis of wood 57 



Zemis of stone 58 



Zemis of cotton cloth inclosing bones 58 



Zemi'! painted on their bodies and faces 58 



Priesthood 59 



Divination tiO 



Medicine practices 61 



Narcotics 63 



Rites and ceremonies — 64 



Ceremony to bring crops 66 



Survival of ceremony in modern dances 68 



Burial ceremonies - - 69 



Myths 72 



Traditions of origin 74 



A modern legend 75 



The name Borinquen 76 



Archeological sites 78 



Dance plazas "9 



Shell heaps ■'^5 



Caves 87 



Archeological objects S9 



Celts - 92 



Enigmatical stones 97 



