80 THE ABORIGINES OF FORTO RICO 



one of tlie inclosiires between the disti'ict of Conierio and P.arranciui- 

 tas and of others in the districts of Jallulas and Hatillo. 



While l)all games may have taken place in the inclosures just 

 described, it seems more probable from their mode of construction, 

 situation, and other features that they were used as dance courts, in 

 which were celebrated some of the solemn religious ceremonies of the 

 clans. It is conjectured that the rows of stones which surround these 

 inclosures are the remains of seats. 



A short distance outside the inclosures there are generally found 

 tumuli, mounds of earth which were used for burial of the dead. 

 These structui'es are not confined to Porto Rico; similar inclosures 

 surrounded by stones occur in other West Indian islands. 



J. G. Miiller, in his history of the aboriginal American religions, 

 speaks of one of these dance places discovered bj^ Schomburgk " in 

 Haiti, near San Juan de Managua, where there was a ring of gi'anite 

 stones, 21 feet thick, which measured 2,770 feet in circumference. In 

 the center of this circle was a rock, 5 feet 6 inches in height, partly 

 buried in the soil, which Schomluirgk supposed to be an idol. He 

 ascribed these structures to a race antedating the Indians that Colum- 

 bus found on the island. 



In his report in the Proceedings of the British Association for IS.Jl 

 Schomburgk gives a more detailed description of the rock inclosure 

 near San Juan de Managua: 



A far more interesting discovery than those heaps of concli shells, made during 

 mv travels in Santo Domingo, is, however, a granite ring in the neighborhood of San 

 Juan de Managua, which seems to have entirely escaped the attention of previous 

 historians and travelers. Managua formed one of the five kingdoms into which Santo 

 Domingo, on the arrival of the Spaniards, was divided. It was governed by the 

 Carib cacique Caonabo (which name signified rain), the most fierce and powerful of 

 the chieftains, and the irreconcilable enemy of the Europeans. The granite ring is 

 now known in the neighborhood under the name of "el cercado de los Iiidios," and 

 lies on a savanna surrounded with groves of wood and bounded by the river Jlanagua. 

 The circle consists moistly of granite rocks, which prove by their smoothness that 

 they have been collected on the banks of the river, probably at Managua, although 

 its distance is considerable. The rocks are mostly each from 30 to .50 pounds in 

 weight, and have been placed close together, giving the ring the api)earance of a 

 p:ived road, 21 feet in breadth and, as far as the trees and bushes which had grown 

 up from between the rocks permitted one to ascertain, 2,270 feet in circumference. 

 A large granite rock, 5 feet 7 inches in length, ending in obtuse points, lies nearly in 

 the middle of the circle, partly embedded in the ground. I do not think its j^resent 

 situation is the one it originally occupied; the rock stood probably in the center. It 

 has been smoothed and fashioned by human hands, and, although the' surface has 

 suffered from atmospheric influences, there is evidence that it was to represent a 

 human figure; the cavities of the eyes and mouth are still visible. 



This rock has in every respect the appearance of the figure represented by Pere 

 Charlevoix in his Histoire de I'isle Esi^ignole on de Saint Dominigue, which he des- 



aSir Robert Schomburgk, Ethnological Researches in Santo Domingo, in the Report of the British 

 Association, p. 90-92. 1851. See also Bachiller y Morales's quotation from J. G. Jliiller's Amerikan- 

 ische Religionen, also an article in the Heiistii de la IMiana in which he describes the so-called 

 cerciulos de los Indios of Santo Domingo. 



