FEWKES] SECULAR (CUSTOMS 47 



island, still live in cabins (plate vii, «, I) that are thatched in the 

 same manner as those of Porto Rico. The}^ differ as a rule in one 

 important particular, due, no doubt, to local conditions. The cabins of 

 the Arima Indians have a protected portion not inclosed by walls but 

 covered by an extension of the roof, serving as a cooking place. 

 Neither this part nor the adjoining room has other than a dirt floor, 

 like the Porto Rican cabin. Life in both dwellings, judged from a 

 civilized standard, is vei'y primitive; and it is not too much to say that 

 the cabin and its contents of the Gibaros or natives living to-day in 

 the mountains of Porto Rico are no advance on the caiieys or hoh'ws of 

 the prehistoric inhabitants. The prehistoric people of Porto Rico had 

 a low cultural development, but possessed decorated potter}^ orna- 

 mented pestles, beautifully carved wooden seats, tinelj' made baskets, 

 and delicately woven hammocks. There were many evidences of art, 

 grotescjue though it was, in the home of the native. In the modern 

 cabin there is little evidence of art. The Gibaro uses the rudest pot- 

 ter}', which is undecorated; an old oil can serves him for a water jar; 

 he generally has no chairs, table, or bed. His rude wooden pestle 

 bears no ornamentation, and wherever one looks in his cabin nothing 

 but squalor meets the ej'e. The prehistoric native, judged by what 

 he has left, was in a higher artistic condition. 



The Carib house in St Vincent (plate viii) is built of practically the 

 same kind of material as the thatched Porto Rican cabin, although the 

 photograph represents not a dwelling, but a covered working place, 

 the group of Carib here shown being employed in basket-making. 

 Other Carib houses on this island and on Dominica, where descendants 

 of these Indians still live, difler but slightly from those of the peas- 

 ants of Porto Rico, and the same is true of the few families who 

 claim Indian descent now living at El Caney. near Santiago de Cuba. 



From these considerations, no less than from the folklore, we are led 

 to the belief that the habitations of the prehistoric natives of Porto 

 Rico did not differ widely from houses still built and used hy the poorer 

 class now inhabiting the more isolated parts of Porto Rico. If any- 

 thing, the dwellings of the aborigines were better made, better fur- 

 nished, and more commodious than modern Gibaro cabins. 



SECULAR CUSTOMS 



Naming Children; Marriage Customs 



Descent among the Borinquenos was' in the female line, and th(Mi- 

 names, of which the son of a cacique had several, were given in a 

 ceremon)' that occurred immediately after birth. Such names as 

 •'Heavenly,'' "Highness," "Bright One,'' were borne by some of the 

 chiefs, whom it was customary to address by all their titles. 



