4'2 IHK ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO [eth. ann. i;5 



western oiul of Porto Rico, diseoverod ))_y Columbus durinir his .second 

 vo^'age. The houses composing this pueblo were, he says, arranged 

 about a central inclosure or plaza, from which there extended to the 

 shore a double row of palisades inclosing a jjassageway covered with 

 boughs and ending in an elevated lookout near the seashore. This 

 latter structure was larger and higher than the other houses and 

 apparently circular in form. 



Clusters of mounds are found in the neighborhood of the inclosuves, 

 surrounded by standing stones, caUed the jucgotsdc^Jjo/a, or ball courts, 

 remains of many of which are still found in the interior of the island. 

 These mounds may have been sites of houses arranged about the 

 inclosures, and there may have been a central structure larger than and 

 in form different from the smaller dwellings clustei-ed about it. If this 

 were true, each of the sinallor cabins in these clusters was proljabl}' 

 peopled by one clan or piiratry, and the larger central house served as 

 the temple where the idols and ceremonial objects were kept, and 

 where the head of the clan, called the cacique, resid(>d. There is good 

 evidence that in every pueblo one hou.se, different from the rest, was 

 always set apart for religious purposes, and in this house idols and 

 other paraphernalia of worship were always kept. 



The other houses were habitations of the people, and were apparently 

 of two forms, circular and rectangular, these tj^pes being constructed 

 of similar material, so put together that they closely resembled each 

 other in general character. 



Herrera" thus describes the houses of the primitive inhabitants of 

 Espanola, or Haiti: 



Each cacique lias a lioiise apart from those of the people, where there are certain 

 figures of stone, wood, or painting worked in relief, which they call Cemis. In this 

 house they do nothing but hold services to these Cemix, performing ceremonies and 

 prayers which correspond to the worship in churches. 



Within this "temple" they have a small, well-made table (tal)la), round in form, 

 on which are placed certain powders with w'hich they sprinkle the heads of the 

 images with definite ceremonies, and with a cane of two branches, which they place 

 in tlieir nostrils, they snuff up this powder; the words they say no Spaniard under- 

 stands. . . . They affix to these figures the names of their ancestors. . . . 

 Certain Castilians, desiring to see the mysteries of their altars, went into one of 

 these houses, and immediately the Ceiid spoke in their tongue, from which deception 

 they learned that the idol was artificially made, and the statue was hollow, from 

 behind which there was a hollow cane extending toacornerof the "church," where 

 a person was hidden. The responses were made by this person through the tube. 



Oviedo gives a description of the architecture of the aboriginal 

 houses of the Haitians, which probably applies to those of the natives 



« Descripoi6n de las Indias Oeeidentales, decade I, book iii, chap. 3, p. 67, Madrid. 1730. Antonio 

 de Herrera, who was born in 1.565 and died in 1625 at the age of 60 years, was appointed historiogra- 

 pher of the Indies by King Ferdinand 11. His great work in the judgment of some writers is largely 

 a translation of Las Casas, but he had access to Spanish archives, which gave it special value. See 

 also Ilerrera's DescripeiAn de la Isla de Puerto Rico, 1582; and Boletlndela Sociedad Geogrdftca de 

 Madrid, 1876. 



