FEWKES] SECULAR CUSTOMS 4*1 



at certain times of the j'ear the natives had comnumal hunts, in which 

 a definite geographical area was surrounded and the game therein 

 driven togetlier by the use of tire and captured. As is customary in 

 all communal hunts, portions of the game were given to the caciques 

 or sacrificed to the gods before the rest was eaten. Practically all 

 hunting, as far as known, was for food, and the natives very rarely 

 killed animals for pleasure. 



The abundance and variet}^ of fish found on the coasts and in the 

 rivers and lagoons insured a rich food supply for the aboriginal Porto 

 Ricans. Some scattered accounts of the methods of fishing occur in 

 the writings of early European travelers and chroniclers. Fishes were 

 captured by means of nets or were speared with weapons having shell 

 or bone points. Bone fishhooks and harpoon points have been found 

 in some of the islands. The Cubans are said to have had artilicial fish 

 ponds. 



In a Life of Columbus, claimed to have been written by his son Fer- 

 nando, the Cubans are said to have used in fishing the eel-like fish 

 called the remora. This unique method of fish capture is said to have 

 been seen by Columbus on the coast of Cuba, but no conhrmator}' 

 reference to its use elsewhere in West Indian waters is known to the 

 author. The remora, attached to a cord held by the fisherman, glid- 

 ing through the water attaches itself to a fish or a turtle by means of a 

 dorsal sucker, after which the fisherman draws it back with its pre}'. 



The use of poison in the capture of fishes among the Cai'ib is spoken 

 of bv Davies as follows: 



But if the other inventions for fisliing should tail our Caribbeans, they have their 

 recourse to a certain wood, which they bruise after they have cut it into little pieces, 

 which done they cart it into ponds or those places where the sea is quiet and calm; 

 and this is, as it were, a sovereign mummy wherewith they take as much lish as 

 they please, but they are so prudent as not to make use i>£ this last expedient only 

 in case of necessity for fear of making too great a waste among the fish. 



A notice of a few edible animals suggests the variety of food derived 

 from hunting and fishing. In the feast which the cacique Behechio 

 gave to the Spaniards in 1496, on their expedition to the i^rovince of 

 Xaragua, Haiti, the principal dishes were utias, regarded as a great 

 delicacj' , iguanas, and all kinds of sea and river fishes. 



The utia (wood rat) was probalily the mammal mentioned by Doctor 

 Chanca as " very good eating," and the agouti, (giiahiniqnaa) was hunted 

 with "dumb dogs." The natives hunted also the cori (rabbit), (piemi, 

 and mohui, all of which were food animals. Bats, lizards, frogs, 

 insects, spiders, grubs of various kinds, oysters, manatees, and eggs of 

 iguanas, all contributed to the dietary of the natives. 



.\mong other animal foods should be mentioned crustaceans, of 



which there are many in the West Indies. According to Charlevoix 



crabs, called chicJu-s, were uuich prized as food. "There is no table, "" 



he says, "that they would not honor," and he adds that "a crab or a 



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