FEWKES] ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES 85 



presence in graves and in dance plazas indicates tliat they were suffi- 

 ciently prized to have been brought there for a purpose, and I offer 

 the following speculation as to their use: 



Water-worn stones are symbols of running water, the worship of 

 which is highly significant in the rain ceremonies of primitive agri- 

 culturists. In the confusion of cause and effect, so common among- 

 aboriginal peoples, these stones, shaped mainly by running water, are 

 believed to have magic power to bring rain or to cause water to fill 

 the stream beds. Hence they wei'e gathered by the Indians and car- 

 ried to dance and other ceremonial places, where they are now so 

 commonl}' found. We find that water-worn stones are often wor- 

 shiped by primitive agriculturists because of the belief that these 

 objects cause the water, which has given them their form, to increase, 

 just as the frog, which lives in moist places, is believed to augment 

 the water supply. " 



It is interesting to add, in discussing the probable use of these stone 

 balls, that Doctor Stahl, who has given much attention to the botajiy of 

 Porto Rico, after stating tliat a portion of the description of hatey given 

 by Oviedo was derived from the game played by the South American 

 Indians, declares that there is no natural vegetable product in Porto 

 Rico which furnishes an elastic gum * that could have served the abo- 

 rigines for the balls used in the game. Whether the prehistoric Porto 

 Ricans did or did not play the ball game described bj' Oviedo is beyond 

 the scope of this writing, but the stone balls found in the dance plazas 

 certainly could not have been used in the manner Oviedo describes. 



The foregoing explanation does not fully account for the name^Mtff/OA- 

 dti hola, which survives from early times and evidently originated 

 among the Spaniards, who, with knowledge of the use of these inclo- 

 sures, applied it to them. The prehistoric Porto Ricans may have 

 performed, in these inclosures, games or ceremonies with stone lialls. 

 Such games were known to Oviedo, but in his description he does not 

 carefull}- distinguish them from those in which elastic balls were used. 

 Similar games, to which have been ascribed a phallic significance, are 

 recorded from Yucatan and elsewhere. In the absence of documentary 

 proof of the existence of a prehistoric game with stone balls in Porto 

 Rico, we have little basis for speculation I'egarding their phallic 

 significance, but that this game, when it existed, had a symbolic ger- 

 minative meaning among the tribes which practised it is not improbable. 



Shell Heaps 



The existence of shell heaps along the coast of Porto Rico has been 

 mentioned by several authors, and excavations have been made in some 



a Many instances might be cited in which, among primitive men, water-worn stones and sucks 

 or water animals are believed to be efficacious in bringing water. To these may be added shells of 

 water animals, water plants, and, in fact, anything from the water or pertaining to it. 



("Stahl regards It as probable that this goma eldstica was obtained from a tree, Hiplwnia dastica, 

 peculiar to the mainland ("costa tirme"). 



